


The Human Heart, its Hungry Gorge

by Lisa_Lisa



Series: Blood is Thicker than Water [3]
Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: (but not for long), Almost Kiss, Banter, Begging, Bickering, Blow Jobs, Canon-Typical Violence, Cockblocking, Conversations, Denial of Feelings, Devil Trigger (Devil May Cry), Dom/sub Undertones, Domestic, Drunkenness, Established Relationship, Exposure, F/M, Falling In Love, Father/Son Incest, Feelings Realization, Fights, Fluff and Angst, Fuckbuddies, Heartache, Incest, Jealousy, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, POV Alternating, Possessive Behavior, Post-Canon, Post-DMC5, Romance, Rough Sex, Secret Crush, Self-Esteem Issues, Sexual Tension, Slow Build, Smut, Switching, Teasing, Temporarily Unrequited Love, Tension, Twincest, Uncle-Nephew Bonding, Uncle/Nephew Incest, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Wall Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:00:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 60,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27327727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lisa_Lisa/pseuds/Lisa_Lisa
Summary: Half a year after the Qliphoth’s destruction, Nero and Vergil have established themselves in one of the Devil May Cry secondary offices sited in Red Grave, where job isn’t lacking while exterminating demons between the two worlds.It could be said that a relative calm reigns; a calm that will soon be disturbed when Dante reappears after months of being absent, with the need of a place to stay, and with harbored feelings towards Vergil that will bear an impact on the other members of the Sparda family.Note: It can be read as a standalone.
Relationships: (Minor), Dante/Nero (Devil May Cry), Dante/Nero/Vergil (Devil May Cry), Dante/Original Character(s), Dante/Trish (Devil May Cry), Dante/Vergil (Devil May Cry), Nero/Vergil (Devil May Cry)
Series: Blood is Thicker than Water [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1470086
Comments: 178
Kudos: 270





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> And, finally, this is the third and final installment of Blood is Thicker than Water series! :D
> 
> If someone has clicked this story without reading the first two parts, it’s okay: you can read this one as a standalone, assuming that Nero and Vergil are in an established relationship after the events taking place in DMC5.
> 
> As indicated in the summary and the tags, Dante will end up involved with both Vergil and Nero, so you can expect certain slow build (not too slow, I promise), some pining and, for sure, smut involving the three Sparda Devil Hunters, proof of that is that, for once, the fic starts directly in E, so you’ve been warned :P

“So you tell me that _that old man_ is the strongest guy in the prison?”

Dante smiled to himself in the solitary table where he was sitting. The man who had snapped that question with a skeptical tone was the new star of the penitentiary: an apparent reputed killer who had been transferred that same morning.

“Careful, boss. He will hear you.” He was in fact hearing _them_ , even if the convict that talked next did it in a lower tone.

“And _what_ if he does, huh? Wasn’t he arrested for assaulting one of those private properties?” Well, ‘assaulting’ was a rather strong word. He had merely entered uninvited to that manor when the owners were out, after he confirmed the existence of a picture where multiple sins had been inhabiting, waiting the proper moment to go rampant.

“Yeah, but rumors say that when the police arrived, the place was a damn mess.” _That_ had been those damn sin’s fault. For the most part, at least.

“And the man was covered in blood! Even if no corpses were found.” Well, _obviously_ you were going to end up stained in blood when killing some demons, but the police had been too narrow minded to believe his version and decided to lock him there while searching for evidence of a murder that had never happened.

“Tsk, do ya think I’m gonna believe that bullshit? Come on, look at him: how old is he, fifty? It’s impossible that an old man like that is that dangerous.” Okay, that guy had to be blind for sure. There was _no way_ that he looked more than forty-five. Maybe it was the beard. Everyone knew that beards made you look older.

“But boss, he hasn’t lost any of the fights he had got himself into. And Larry was never the same since he faced him alone.” Larry? Who the hell was Larry?

“Yeah, the poor bastard is still in the psychiatric, mumbling something about demons or some shit like that.” Oh, _right_. The rapist who thought it was a good idea to corner him during cleaning duty. Yeah, for sure he did _not_ regret having scared the man to death, almost literally.

As the conversation dragged on, Dante initially planned to pretend that he wasn’t hearing it, preferring to continue stirring the unidentified mass that conformed his porridge. However, when that guy kept insisting that his companions were exaggerating about his fame - they weren’t - Dante changed his mind.

He raised his face from his tray to look at the newcomer straight in the eye, provoking a silence in the table where they were sitting. He scanned the man. The guy was around his thirties, some scars covered his face, and a decent physical build could be hinted under the general uniform that all the inmates were forced to wear.

The man managed to sustain his gaze without showing any nervousness, which was a good signal. Also, the fact that a few lackeys were already accompanying the guy when he had arrived that same morning could indicate that the man was more than pure talk. Maybe he could pose an actual challenge for him, something that Dante was looking forward to after two weeks of too much calm.

Dante made sure to keep eye contact before offering the man a smug smile. He also winked at him playfully, his smile widening when the man showed an infuriated expression. The guy even attempted to stand up from the table with a clear will of fighting him, just to be stopped by his companions.

A chuckle escaped Dante when hearing a furious ‘ _Son of a bitch_ ’ spat in a tone loud enough so that he could hear it. Yep, the day promised to be more interesting than the previous ones.

* * *

He didn’t have to wait much for the party to start. It happened during the break. He had spent ten minutes lying on one of the outside yard’s benches, taking a small nap without minding at all the cold weather, when he heard steps approaching. He didn’t open his eyes though, not even after feeling the characteristic contact of a baton tapping against the side of his flexed leg.

“Hey, Redgrave. It’s your turn of cleaning the storeroom.”

Dante opened his eyes to look up at the guard who had approached him, offering him an innocent smile.

“I think you’re mistaken, boss. I did it last week.”

As he predicted, a vein appeared in the man’s forehead before his leg was hit again with the baton, this time with more force.

“Stop complaining and stand up, inmate. You won’t want to come back to the isolation cell, will you?”

Dante was about to remark that his previous stay hadn’t been that bad but preferred to bite his tongue not to screw up what was coming next.

As he had foreseen, the moment the door of the storeroom closed behind him, the lackeys of that afternoon jumped on him. He could have gotten rid of them easily, but he preferred to humor them and pretend that they had been able to force him to his knees just to witness the show that the alpha of the group, now standing in front of him with his arms crossed, had planned for him.

“So, you can bribe the guards on your first day.” Dante whistled while nodding. “Impressive.”

The inmate ignored his praise, approached him and kicked him in the stomach with enough strength so that Dante bent in two with a huff.

“O - kay.” Dante exhaled a breathless chuckle. “I see you’re a man of few words, nothing wrong with that, you know? But at least, you could introduce yourself before—”

A punch directed to his face caused Dante’s head to twist to the side. The devil hunter felt blood on his mouth, so he spat on the ground to remove it, already feeling the injury closing. Since provocations didn’t look too effective, he thought that maybe directly suggesting the man a one-on-one fight could be faster to achieve his goal.

He looked at the guy with the intention of doing that when this one finally talked while pulling up the right sleeve of his t-shirt.

“Ya know what this is?”

Dante blinked, staring at the several inked asterisks that were covering the man’s forearm.

“A really long password?”

Another punch followed his mocking guess, this time directed to the other side of his face. Dante was moving his jaw from one side to the other to verify it wasn’t broken when the tattooed convict crouched in front of him.

“ _These_ are all the people I’ve killed. I add a star with each new victim.” The man signaled an empty spot on the last row. “I was thrown in this hole before I could complete this row, and you’re the lucky bastard in filling that spot.”

Dante closed his eyes before exhaling a deep breath.

“Damn, it seems that my skills to read people are getting worse with age.”

“What are you mumbling, asshole—”

Dante devil triggered in an almost lazy way. The explosion that always accompanied his transformation caused the convicts keeping him ‘captive’ to be thrown in different directions of the room with violence, all of them losing consciousness because of the heavy impact against the different walls. Dante’s gut was telling him that someone so pathetic as to mark his skin to boast about his victims wouldn't need any extra murderous aura to piss his pants, and he was right, even in the pissing part.

The mere presence of Dante’s imposing demonic figure was enough to make the poor bastard shout a high-pitched shout of terror while dropping backwards. The cry alerted the guard waiting outside, who opened the door a second after Dante switched back to his human form. The man started at the scene in disbelief before looking at Dante suspiciously.

“What did you do this time, inmate?”

Dante shrugged while trying to look as innocent as possible.

“I didn’t do anything, boss,” he said in a natural tone while the only conscious convict in the room kept opening and closing his mouth in a mute expression of pure terror. “These guys were like this when I entered.”

His joke of an excuse caused the guard’s suspicion to increase even more. However, after a short pause, the man seemed to decide that overlooking the ‘fight’ was the best option, since the bribe that he had for sure accepted to bring Dante there to have ‘a talk’ could be discovered if he dug too much into the matter.

The guard moved head towards the yard while snapping a short ‘ _Out_ ’ that Dante obeyed with a carefree smile. Dante was about to enter the fenced door leading to the yard, not paying the least attention to the guard dragging the new traumatized convict outside the storeroom, when another guard approached him.

“Wait, Redgrave. We’re taking you back to your cell.” Dante was about to protest by saying that those drug rumors had nothing to do with him, and that consequently registering his cell would be a waste of time like the past two times, when the guard kept talking. “Your bail has been paid.”

The news was so shocking that Dante’s eyes were still fully opened when the guard led him back to his cell in order to gather his things, or ‘thing’ in his case, since a hot magazine had been his only belonging during the three months that he had spent there.

Ten minutes later, he was dressed with the clothes he had been wearing when being jailed, which had been fortunately washed. A man at the reception returned his things to him, and Dante was about to laugh at the shocked expression of all the guards around when his weapons were returned to him.

“Hey, the one who paid bail was an old man around his sixties?”

Dante didn’t understand why his question caused the guard in the reception to burst out laughing until he left the building and saw Trish there, leaning against _his_ motorbike that, of course, she had borrowed without permission.

The woman was wearing her usual attire, but the cold breeze of December had made her add a leather black jacket to her usual complements, together with a pair of sunglasses that she removed when Dante approached her with a smile.

“Hey there. You look great, love.”

“You don’t,” Trish replied in her usual un-charming way, signaling with her sunglasses at Dante’s hair, which by then reached below his shoulders. “They didn’t provide you with razors or what?”

“They did, but I thought that the grunge style would suit me.”

“I’m sorry, dear, but that style is as out of fashion as it was before your absence.”

Dante exhaled a laugh and shook his head. Then, he changed the topic while offering her a look of wonder.

“I wasn’t expecting that you found me so soon. And much less that you had the cash to take me out of here.”

Trish stored her sunglasses on the front pocket of her jacket before mounting the motorbike.

“You have to thank Morrison for it. You know he’s an expert in finding people that don’t want to be found. And well, regarding the bail—”

“Wait, why are _you_ driving?”

Trish blinked.

“Dante, you’ve barely got out of jail. Do you want to go back in for riding without a driving license?”

“...Point taken.” He reluctantly took the seat behind Trish and also accepted the helmet she provided him with, even if he planned to throw it away the moment the police were out of sight. “And regarding the bail, you were saying…”

Trish started the motorbike and speeded down the road before answering.

“Well, we took the money to pay it from your office insurance.”

“Wait, my office has insurance? Since when?”

“Since Morrison decided to take the reins of the paperwork.”

“Heh, I knew it was a good idea to put him in charge.” He frowned with confusion. “But I don’t understand, how did you get the money from there?”

“Because according to the insurance policies, when the secured building goes under heavy damage, you have the option of using that money to other means you see fit instead of having to invest it in remodeling the place. Morrison was going to initially invest the money in the office, but then he found out that you were in prison under your old alias, so we thought that it was better to use it to get you out first.”

“Wait, wait, what do you mean with ‘heavy damage?” He didn’t like Trish’s silence one bit. “Trish? Trish, did something happen to the office while I was out?”

After a long pause, Trish spoke with a calmed tone intended to put him at ease, but which ended achieving the opposite effect.

“I think it’s better if you see it for yourself.”

Dante gulped. He liked that answer even less.

* * *

“Holy _shit_.”

“I told you that it was bad.”

Dante’s mouth was still opened while staring in disbelief at the demolished building of the Residential Area where Devil May Cry was. Or, better said, where it _had been_.

“Damn, but not _that_ bad.” Dante interlaced his fingers behind his head, exhaling an incredulous, half-hysterical laugh while staring at the level of destruction of the whole block. “And you say some demons did this?”

“Some _big_ demons to be precise,” Trish clarified, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Come on, I’ll let you drive us to my apartment. The things I managed to recover are there.”

Dante still spent some seconds staring at his destroyed workspace before sighing with resignation and following Trish back to the motorbike.

There wasn’t much that Trish had managed to save besides a spare of clothes, the weapons that he hadn’t brought to his last job, and, the most important thing, his mother’s photography, which was almost intact aside from the frame, which had ended a little broken. Once his even scarcer belongings were placed inside a bag, Dante asked her to borrow her shower, not sure if the woman would let him because it wasn’t the first time that he assaulted her bathroom to avoid raising his own water bill.

She must have missed him, because she agreed without protesting and even announced that she would prepare lunch in the meantime. That last offer scared him a little. As far as he knew, she sucked at cooking as much as him. However, he doubted that whatever she prepared was worse than the food he’d been eating until then. Besides, with how hungry he was, he was pretty sure that he would eat whatever she served with gusto, no matter if it was actually edible or not.

Dante had never been the kind of person in enjoying long showers - and yeah, the fact that he had always struggled with paying the bills _may_ have something to do with his habit of keeping the baths as short as possible - but after three months of using the showers of the prison, he felt close to have an erection when the warm water started cascading down on him.

Some minutes later he joined Trish in the kitchen, while being in the process of putting his dark t-shirt on.

“I knew it was impossible that you prepared some handmade cooking,” he joked when seeing the frozen pizzas that had been served on the table. His comment made Trish huff softly.

“I used _my_ oven, so they’re handmade.”

“Oh, yeah, I can see your touch in this,” Dante teased after taking a portion and seeing that the dough was half-burned, which caused Trish to steal the portion from his hands to give it a bite instead.

“Keep complaining and I’ll feed you with dog food.”

“And why the hell would you have _that_? You don’t have any pets.”

“No, but we needed it for a job involving cerberus puppies and there’s still some left.”

“Okay, now I need to hear that story.”

While eating, Dante learned that those ‘puppies’ were the culprits that his office had ceased to exist, since they had managed to grow up and cause a lot of damage before being stopped. Trish also filled him in with the more relevant cases that had taken place during his absence. By the time the woman finished talking, there were no leftovers of the three pizzas she had almost burned.

“Damn, I feel like a changed man now. It’s impressive what a shower and a full stomach can do,” Dante said with a sated tone, dropping back against the chair with his arms crossed while Trish carried the dirty dishes to the sink.

“Then, now that your basic necessities have been fulfilled, do you feel more inclined to talk about how you’ve been?”

Dante tensed a little at the question, since he perfectly knew what topic Trish was going to mention. He was about to make up an excuse when Trish crouched down to recover some dishwashing soap that she kept inside the drawer under the sink.

His eyes automatically shifted to her ass.

He bit his lower lip as a small smirk appeared in his face. Well, it wasn’t the first time that he used that technique to avoid talking about something that he didn’t want, and damn, it had been a while. It was worth a try, so he casually stood up and approached her from behind.

“Yeah, but before doing that, I can think about a third basic necessity, you know?”

The fact that Trish didn’t push him back when he brushed her blonde hair away from her neck in order to nip at the skin was a good signal, a hint that she wasn’t as reluctant to his suggestion as her next words showed.

“So you are not happy enough with stealing my water and food. You want the whole pack.”

Dante chuckled while nipping her neck with more force, placing his hands on her hips to grab them with intent.

“Well, there’s another way to look at it, love.” Dante turned Trish around to talk with an utmost serious tone that contrasted with the glint of his eyes. “Precisely because I don’t have enough money to pay for your water and food, I’m offering you some other services as compensation.”

Trish hummed with a smile, and Dante’s cock throbbed in anticipation when Trish used her ability of controlling her clothes at will to end completely naked in front of him.

“Well, I hope that those ‘services’ haven’t lost quality since the last time,” she reached for the zipper of his trousers and lowered it without having to look, her eyes fixed on his hungry ones. “Because if they haven’t improved, you’ll have to pay nevertheless.”

Dante’s smirk widened while lowering his hand to start teasing her folds at the same time that her hand sneaked inside his pants to wrap his member, both actions causing them to groan softly at unison.

“You know I’m always up for a challenge,” he purred before their mouths crashed in a familiar, intense kiss.

Sex with Trish had always been good and simple, exempted of any difficulties and complicated feelings. Dante considered the woman his best friend, and he also considered himself hers even if she sometimes teased him by refusing to admit it.

That was what they were now: two close friends that had been knowing each other for quite a long time, and who had some occasional fun just as they were doing then, with Trish’s legs wrapped around his lower back and Dante ramming his way inside her while keeping a good grip on her ass.

The only thing preventing him from raising her whole weight in the air was the way Trish’s hands were grabbing the edge of the kitchen counter with force, in order to have a good support to meet each one of his eager thrusts.

Dante groaned against Trish’s cheek when feeling her exposed breasts rubbing against his still covered torso. He cursed and momentarily released Trish to hurriedly remove his t-shirt, wanting more friction.

Trish chuckled from her sitting spot on the kitchen counter when he cursed louder after the piece of clothing ended stuck on his head. The woman released the counter with one hand to help him with the task. Once the t-shirt had been thrown without any care behind them - breaking something in the process because the sound of broken glass reached Dante’s ears - Trish enclosed that arm around his neck, forcing their chests together after he grabbed her backside again to resume their fucking.

“Oh, yeah, much better,” Dante rasped against the crook of Trish’s neck when feeling the direct contact of her soft boobs bouncing up and down against his chest with each thrust. “Damn, I’ve missed these girls.”

Trish snorted against his ear.

“More than you have missed me, I bet,” she teased, causing him to laugh and separate to kiss her conciliatorily.

“Not more, love, but almost,” he replied with a small smirk, pausing for a moment in order to pay his respects to Trish’s breasts with his tongue and teeth. The taste of the woman’s skin got him even harder inside her. Trish liked when he did that, since she moaned and arched towards his mouth while undulating back and forth to keep taking him in.

Dante still took his sweet time licking and massaging her boobs in his hands before starting moving again, now without stopping until he finished with a relieved groan while buried inside Trish, making the most of the impossibility of her getting pregnant, courtesy of Mundus having created her in such a way.

“Damn, babe.” He whistled while still caging Trish against the counter, his hands placed now in either side of her sitting, naked figure. “It’s been as awesome as usual.”

Trish huffed and hit the back of his head with one hand, unwrapping her legs from his body.

“Good for you, but I haven’t finished yet—”

Trish’s sentence ended with a surprised gasp when Dante carried her in his arms and turned around to lay her on the round kitchen table, facing up.

“Come on, love, what do you take me for? I’d never dare to leave you hanging, so...” Trish bit her lower lip in anticipation when he opened her legs and started lowering his smirking face towards her cunt, “Round two.”

He managed to make her orgasm twice while eating her out, leaving her quite satisfied since she even agreed to a couple more rounds, this time on the bed.

Dante didn’t know who ended more exhausted after the third time he came: if Trish or him. As much as it pained him to admit it, probably it had been him, because one second Trish was curling next to him with her breathing labored, and the next time he blinked the woman was sitting against the headboard reading a book, a towel wrapped around her body and her hair wet from a recent shower.

“Welcome back,” she teased when seeing his confused expression.

“How much time I’ve been out?”

“Around 15 minutes. It seems that those ‘high-quality services’ come with a price.”

Dante chuckled and closed his eyes again, passing a hand through them before sitting up straight too. He had just noticed that Trish had covered his lower half with the sheets after he dozed off when suddenly the woman offered him a lit cigarette.

“Do you want a drag?”

Dante’s eyes opened in stupor while looking at her.

“Since when do you smoke?”

“It’s going to make three weeks now.” Trish shrugged at his reproaching look. “Blame Lady for it.”

“Wait, so Lady smokes too?”

“Yes, and you have one opportunity to guess who was her bad influence.”

Dante snorted, pushing Trish’s hand away to retire that cigarette from his face.

“Nico has inherited her grandma’s bad habits.”

He interlaced his fingers behind his head and closed his eyes, enjoying the calm enveloping them.

However, he had got used to the fact that good things never last forever, such as the money to pay for the rent, which vanished at a way faster rhythm than he earned it, or the days that he could spend doing nothing before demons decided to come back to bother.

The comfortable silence that had fallen then was one of those things, and for that reason he wasn’t too surprised when it came to an end.

“So, are you finally going to ask about him or not?”

Dante chuckled, realizing that he had been naive by assuming that some quickies would be enough to stop Trish from bringing up _that_ topic.

He had no way to avoid it though. Trish had made a fantastic job by using his cards against him, stealing his energies out of him with that last orgasm. He doubted to even have the strength to trigger and get out of there, and even if he did that, nothing would stop Trish from going after him and forcing that conversation out of him. She had done that before. She had always been stubborn, and that characteristic had just got worse with age.

So, he exhaled a deep, resigned breath, opened his eyes, and formulated that unavoidable question.

“How is Vergil?

Trish gave another drag at her cigarette and left it on the ashtray. She then closed her book to focus her full attention on Dante before talking next.

“He’s fine. He and Nero are taking good care of the incidents that come up in Red Grave. They are making quite a name for themselves there, so the surrounding cities already know who they should call whenever there is trouble involving demons.”

Dante nodded with his gaze still fixed in the wall in front of him.

“That’s good for them and bad for my reputation. The office better be repaired soon, so that those two don’t take all the jobs for themselves.”

“Well, for sure it’s going to take a while until that happens.” At that rate, Dante feared that a hole was opened in him when feeling Trish’s eyes digging on him with even more intensity. “So, in the meantime, maybe you should consider joining the business of Devil May Cry secondary branch.”

Dante sighed tiredly, removing his hands from behind his head in order to cross his arms.

“Trish, we’ve already talked about this.” His eyes were finally dragged towards the woman. “I cannot do that.”

“No, Dante. You can, but you don’t want to.”

“Yeah, you right: I don’t.” His tone was even more serious than before when continuing talking. “You already know what happened the last time Verg and I worked together. It was a close call. A _too close_ one, and I’m not taking that risk again. I just…”

He paused for a moment to try to find the proper words to describe the mess in which he had been tangled during the past months, but he gave up at the end, preferring to jump to the conclusion he had reached.

“...I just need more time.” He vaguely gestured towards his chest with a hand. “At least until I manage to make all this shit go away.”

During the new silence that settled down, Trish didn’t avert her eyes from him. She simply changed posture on the bed, lying on the mattress on her side with her head propped up on her hand.

“That’s why you didn’t make any effort to break yourself free from that prison, even if you could? To be left alone?”

A lopsided smile appeared in Dante’s face when, once again, Trish’s intuition proved to be spot on.

“Well, everyone deserves some days off, you know? Myself included.”

Trish chuckled softly at his reply.

“So the time you spent in jail was like holidays for you?”

“Nah, not holidays. It was more like…” after a pause, Dante uncrossed his right hand to snap his fingers in triumph when the proper term came to him, “a spiritual retirement.”

Trish rolled her eyes.

“In any case, you could have asked. For sure I would have managed to recommend you far better destinations.”

Dante barked a laugh.

“Sorry, love, but I doubt you had managed to come up with a better option. I mean, yeah, sure, the meals barely managed to be edible, and the showers could be better without all that dirt and smell of piss, but asides from that, it was...peaceful, you know?” He averted his eyes again, getting lost in his thoughts. “It was a nice change of pace. Just being there, alone; without worrying about demons attacking, or about a rent to be paid.” Or about his feelings for Vergil when the man had already found what he needed in his offspring.

He didn’t say that last bit, but Trish’s next words indicated she had managed to follow his train of thoughts.

“And did it work? All that time you spent isolated from the world, all that distance that you have forced yourself to keep from Vergil during these months, did it help you to get over him?”

Dante would have liked to say that it had worked; that now, he could think about Vergil without feeling regret and frustration for not having managed to be there for him, as Nero had done during the damn month that he spent unconscious after his first battle against Urizen.

But he would be lying, and Trish had always been able to catch his lies. His silence was the sincerest answer he could have given her, and it caused her to talk again in a softer tone.

“So, if it did not work, don’t you think it’s time to change tactics?”

Dante felt his pulse skip a beat when hearing the question.

“Let me guess: that ‘change of tactics’ involves me coming back to Red Grave?” The way Trish nodded caused Dante to huff before throwing a side glance towards her. “Damn, how have you managed to bring us to the starting point?”

Trish smiled with patience.

“That’s what happens when you run in circles around a problem that has no solution, instead of realizing that, sometimes, there’s nothing to solve.”

“Well, maybe the solution is just very well hidden,” Dante ventured, hopingly, but Trish shook her head without losing her smile, which now looked a little warmer.

“I’m sorry, Dante, but I don’t think this is the case. You spent years mourning Vergil after he was gone in Temen-ni-gru, and then blaming yourself when you thought you had killed him. And during all that time, you were unable to come to terms with his death. You didn’t want to believe it, so you never stopped looking for him, hoping that he was alive somewhere even if everything pointed to the contrary. His absence was so painful that it almost caused you to hit rock bottom.” She placed a hand on his arm before continuing talking. “Perhaps you don’t want to hear this, Dante, but a love so big and everlasting, there’s no amount of time or distance that can extinguish it.”

Dante exhaled a deep breath and averted his eyes from the woman again.

Part of him wouldn’t have minded to keep with his wishful thinking of eventually getting over Vergil, but surprisingly, hearing Trish confirm his suspicions had been kind of relieving.

“So you say I should just give up and accept I’m gonna become an old fart who will never stop feeling this way for his stupid brother?”

“Yes. Because the soonest you do it, the soonest you can learn to live with it.”

Dante hummed offering Trish a smile full of curiosity.

“Since when did you become an expert in love advice?”

Trish chuckled.

“Accepting what you cannot change can be applied in multiple ambits beyond the romantic. It took me time to be in peace with who I was, and with how I came to exist.” Some gratitude slipped in her next words. “You helped me with it. You convinced me that focusing on living my life was more worthy than worrying about how I had come to have it, and you were right. Now, it’s your turn to practice what you preach and focus on what’s important. So...”

Dante wasn’t expecting when Trish palmed his arm with enough force to make him let out a soft ‘ouch’, taking him by surprise with her next reproaching words.

“...stop avoiding Vergil. You have spent half of your life wanting to have him back and you have him now, so make the most of it because I refuse to be your crying shoulder for another twenty years when you regret having wasted time.”

Trish’s last menacing words managed to put a smile in Dante’s face. As usual, the woman was right. It was irritant how often that happened.

“Okay, okay, I guess you have a point. I promise I'll visit them soon, happy?”

Trish smiled approvingly.

“I knew that you would listen to reason. That’s why you’re leaving tonight.”

It took Dante a few seconds to understand the woman’s words.

“Wait, _what_?”

“What? You have said you wanted to see Vergil and Nero soon.”

“Yeah, but, shit, that’s _too_ sudden!”

“I’m sorry, but the train to Red Grave has also been paid already. It leaves in two hours.”

“So from the start, you planned to send me there no matter if I agreed or not?”

“Oh, I knew you would agree,” Trish said in utter conviction. “After fifteen years, I know all the tricks to convince you.”

Dante snorted and retired the sheets from his legs, standing naked on the floor.

“You should be ashamed, kicking me out of your house when the sheets are still warm. Damn, that’s pretty heartless, you know?”

“Well, it was you who said that sex was a payment for the food and water, so your duty here is done.” Dante snorted again when hearing Trish’s lilting tone, but he was concealing a smile while walking towards the bathroom. “And please, do something with that beard. It makes you look _even_ older and you should be presentable to see your brother and nephew.”

Dante closed the door of the bathroom behind him hard, on purpose, but that only made Trish chuckle from the bedroom. He leaned his hands on the washbasin, looked at his reflection on the mirror, and then smiled with resignation before reaching for one of the disposable razors that Trish kept around to start shaving, not very sure if the way his pulse had accelerated was due to fear or joy for the prospect of seeing Vergil again.

Probably, it was due to both.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The incident that Dante comments will be explained soon :) (more or less xD)


	2. The end of the calm

Nero’s nap was interrupted when the night bus was shaken after hitting a big bump on the road. He yawned from the back seats of the half-empty vehicle and rubbed the back of his neck before folding his arms in front of his chest. He checked that the big bag that he was bringing with him was still in the adjacent seat. For sure Vergil would complain when seeing the many ‘useless’ gifts that he had received from the villagers of the small town Nero had saved from demons.

A small smile escaped Nero while leaning the back of his head against the seat. He closed his eyes again, thinking how damn much things have changed in those six months, especially his job at Devil May Cry.

Truth was that teamwork had never been something Nero shined at. When he was in the Order of the Sword, his poor predisposition to work with others had got him in trouble several times with Credo. Then, the incident with the Savior happened, and his fight against Sanctus taught him that there were situations that he couldn’t expect to handle without some extra help.

That didn’t mean that he suddenly liked the idea of collaborating. After spending so many years minding his own business whenever the opportunity arose, he was still reluctant to work with someone else, but the reality check he suffered in Fortuna made him grow up, and realize that, sometimes, asking for advice when he wasn’t sure about how to deal with a particular job was a good strategy.

By when Nico joined the devil hunter business, working as a half-part time driver and partner in crime, his teamwork skills had gotten better, although that improvement hadn’t been too evident when working with V.

When starting travelling together to gather information about Urizen’s plans, they had been at each other’s throats, but that hadn’t been his fault: V’s personality wasn’t easy to deal with, and it took him some time to get used to it, and some more to fall for it. However, when that happened, Nero started looking forward to working with V, and he kept feeling that way after the initial shock of discovering who the invoker really was.

If he was completely honest, working with Vergil had been _even_ more challenging than expected. It had taken them some arguments and weeks of adaptation to find the best way to divide the jobs that ended at their desk, most of them courtesy of Morrison, whose services as an information broker had been extended to them since they were all working within the Devil May Cry franchise.

On the one hand, Nero _always_ took care of the jobs that involved people in need. Vergil had commented more than once that, given Nero’s nature, his ‘obsession with gaining points for Heaven’ was quite ridiculous, and also complained about his bad habit of accepting discounts.

Despite those occasional - abundant - criticisms, Nero’s predisposition to accept those jobs hadn’t faltered. It was thanks to them that Devil May Cry was finally enjoying a good reputation for the first time in years. Besides, the time that he spent by Kyrie’s side had changed him for the better from his teenage days, making him feel comfortable helping people.

Nero suspected that Vergil was aware of that ‘bad influence’, which was the reason why the man complained so much whenever Nero devoted time saving strangers, while making zero comments when Nero simply dealt with demons without playing the hero. Not that Nero could do much about it. By then, offering a helping hand to the people he could help was a natural thing to do for him, and the same way that the mere thought of Vergil becoming an altruist made him laugh, his father would need to accept the fact that, among the member of the Sparda family, Nero was the less demonic one.

On the other hand, and as a perfect complement, the jobs that Vergil accepted didn’t use to leave any report behind, since they tended to cross the line of legality although, in exchange, were a lot more profitable. The clients Vergil dealt with were usually people of questionable reputation who asked for relics whose misuse could for sure bring troublesome consequences, being the invocation of a demon the less problematic one.

Once the object was in Vergil’s possession, his father reserved the right to decide what to do with it:

In case of returning the relic to the client, the earnings obtained normally allowed them to spend the following days without working; in case of keeping the object to himself by renouncing to some percentage of the payment, a heated talk with the client ensued with two possible outcomes as well: the client chose the wise path of realizing the advantages of Vergil keeping a hold of the relic, courtesy of Yamato threatening to pierce their throats; the client took the _very_ bad decision of not agreeing to Vergil’s terms, which used to end with a last-minute addition in the newspaper's obituary section.

Unlike Vergil, who never refrained himself from giving his opinion about the cases that Nero accepted, the last preferred not knowing much about the ones Vergil took. Ignorance was bliss sometimes, and he knew that inquiring in his father’s business would only serve to have more trouble sleeping. The only thing he had asked Vergil was to avoid accepting any jobs that could cause another incident like the Qliphoth, something that his father had assured him would not happen.

Maybe he was being naive by believing Vergil's words, given his curriculum of almost causing the end of the world _twice_ , but Nero had decided to trust the man's judgement anyway, while hoping that any future Apocalypses that his father was about to provoke were postponed at least to the next year.

“Next stop: Red Grave city.”

The driver’s announcement put an end to Nero’s thoughts. He yawned again and opened his eyes, waiting for the bus to stop completely before leaving his seat. He recovered his belongings and was careful not to accidentally hit the few passengers that were asleep while walking through the narrow aisle towards the exit.

He was the only person who got off in Red Grave. The bus station was in the outskirts, which meant that it would still take Nero another twenty minutes of walking to reach the office. If it wasn’t past 3 a.m. he wouldn’t have minded stretching his legs, but right then he just wanted to reach the bed asap to sleep to the next day.

After checking that he was alone in the empty street and that the bus was far away enough, he triggered and used his wings to propel himself in the air, keeping a good grip of his two bags not to lose them in his flight home. It took less than five minutes to land on the shop entrance and shift back to his human form. He thought that it was a pity that that form consumed so much energy while flying, because otherwise he wouldn’t hesitate in using it more often to travel.

Nero’s eyes were about to close by when he entered the Devil May Cry, the wooden, old door creaking a little as usual. He tiredly climbed the stairs and continued dragging his feet towards the guest room. In his current state he would be unable to enter the bed of the main bedroom without waking Vergil up. Besides, the man was rather picky, and the probabilities of his father demanding him to take a shower before joining him in bed were rather high, so he preferred to save both of them the trouble.

Once inside the room, he dropped the bags on the floor, removed his weapons and coat, and sat down on the bed to unleash his boots. He was more tired than he thought, because he didn’t notice the presence in the door frame until it talked, though probably the fact that he was in a safe environment had something to do with his lowered guard.

“I believed it was going to be a two-days job.” As usual, Vergil didn’t waste time with welcomes, going straight to the point. “I presume something must have happened if it has taken you almost thrice that time to complete it.”

Nero snorted and raised his face from his crouched position to look at Vergil. Their demonic heritage allowed them to keep a warm body temperature no matter the weather, so he wasn’t surprised when seeing Vergil dressed in just his dark, silk pajama pants with his torso exposed despite the fact that the office was quite cold at that hour.

“That’s because I found an extra nest of empusas under the mayor’s manor.”

Vergil tilted his head while crossing his arms, observing Nero in silence as this one removed the first boot.

“I believed you had been hired to eradicate the anteoras around.”

“Yeah, but what was I supposed to do when finding the nest? To leave it there?”

Nero deadpanned at Vergil when this one’s face remained imperturbable, indicating that _that_ was exactly what his father would have done, as his next words confirmed.

“At least, did you ask for a momentary compensation for the extra trouble?”

Nero allowed himself to answer Vergil in the same way, keeping his expression unchanged before talking with naturalness.

“Nope, but they gave me a bunch of presents.”

He was expecting Vergil’s exasperated roll of eyes, and he wouldn’t have been surprised if his father turned around and came back to their bedroom while muttering some elaborated insults addressed at him. Instead of doing that though, Vergil approached the bed to stand in front of him, forcing Nero to raise his face to look at him.

“What a dumb son I have.”

Well, Nero had been right about the insult part, though Vergil suddenly grabbing the back of his neck and bending down to kiss him hadn’t entered his estimations, neither how Vergil forced him to lay back on the bed to loom over him with a hunger difficult to misinterpret.

“Damn, you wanna do it now—?”

Vergil’s mouth silenced his question, probably considering it unnecessary because Vergil’s concealed erection pressing against his crotch was enough to deduce Vergil’s intentions. 

Nero knew it couldn’t be that time of the cycle yet; the last time Vergil went through it was less than a month ago, and it usually struck him once every two months, although the way Vergil’s mouth was now ravaging his neck while unbuckling his pants was more desperate than usual.

It seemed that his father had missed him during those extra days more than he was willing to admit. It was a pity that Nero was so tired and willing to sleep, or for sure that realization would have made him instantly hard.

“Shit, fine.”

Nero gave up and pushed Vergil back to change position, laying down on the bed in the correct way. The temptation to close his eyes and sleep was very big, but the tearing sound that Vergil’s hands caused in his trousers in his impatience to lower them made Nero lazily raise his hips so that Vergil could remove his lower clothes without destroying them.

He didn’t bother to remove his upper clothes before reaching for the box of condoms that they also kept in that night stand to extract one.

“You’re using one of these tonight,” Nero demanded while shaking the small envelope twice, with a tone that didn’t leave room for debate. “I feel sticky enough already.”

Nero ignored Vergil's tsk and threw the condom towards his father’s naked chest. He turned around to lay face down with his chin rested on his folded arms, in a posture that wanted to stress his tired state, and that therefore Vergil was in charge of doing all the work that night.

Vergil wasted no time in spreading Nero’s buttocks with both hands to press his way inside, immediately bottoming out. By then, Nero’s ass was well adjusted to his father’s cock, needing almost zero preparation to fit it inside. Still, that first stretch never failed to make him react, and that night wasn’t different. Nero couldn’t prevent his mouth from half parting in a silent moan due to the intense sensation of his father filling him.

Goosebumps traversed by his skin when Vergil firmly planted his hands on the mattress on either side of his body, leaning almost flat against him before starting to fuck him with a steady tempo that had the bed creaking softly under them.

Despite his initial intention of keeping a passive attitude, as a way to reprimand his father for not allowing him to sleep, Nero’s cock soon started to take interest in what was happening, hardening while sandwiched between his stomach and the bed. Nero’s hands turned into fists too, his body now craving more than Vergil’s good but too calm rhythm.

He clenched his jaw when some minutes passed and Vergil hadn’t accelerated one bit. He felt frustration invading him when finding himself missing that impatience that Vergil had showed, that urge to fuck him, that was nowhere to be found now.

Nero cursed in annoyance, realizing that Vergil had succeeded in stirring him up against his will once again.

“Is there something wrong, son?” The fake confused tone that Vergil used told Nero the bastard perfectly knew that in fact there was.

“God, you’re such a jerk,” Nero exhaled, his hands now clutching the sheets when Vergil started rubbing his prostate but still too damn slow.

“Really? And here I was trying to be considerate since you’re so tired.” Nero shivered when Vergil stopped while buried in him, the round tip of Vergil’s member pressing against his prostate while looming over him. “Must I take that’s not what you want now?”

Nero shot up a glare at Vergil.

“You already know I don’t, bastard.”

Despite the darkness of the room, Nero could see the white, satisfied grin that his snarl had put in Vergil’s face.

“Manners, Nero.” The young devil hunter felt as annoyed as aroused when Vergil’s lips brushed his ear with a delicacy that contrasted with the commanding component of his next words. “If you want something, ask for it nicely.”

Nero cursed with need when Vergil’s teeth grasped the shell of his ear while moving his hips just enough so that his prostate was abused again. He was so hard against the sheets that it almost hurt, so for once, he swallowed his pride and didn’t put up his usual fight in order to content Vergil’s sporadic whims of making him beg.

“Please, Vergil.” Nero accompanied his words by rolling back his hips while clenching his ass, succeeding in making Vergil’s breath hitch in anticipation. “Come on, dad, fuck me hard, _please_.”

Later, he would regret the desperation that tinged that last word. For the time being though, he could only moan a blissed ‘ _Oh_ y _eah_ ’ when Vergil’s fingers tightened on his hips to _finally_ prop his lower body up so that Nero’s knees were planted on the sheets.

His ass was raised in the air now, allowing Vergil to properly ram into him, impaling him back at the same time that he pushed in. Nero’s groans and curses became louder and needier with the deeper penetration, mixing with Vergil’s more restrained grunts. At some point, his encouragement turned into incoherent sounds that left his mouth non-stop with each rapid, rough, _perfect_ smack of skin against skin, Nero’s tiredness forgotten for the need of seeking relief.

When feeling his orgasm close, Nero supported his weigth on his left forearm in order to rock his body back to meet Vergil’s movements. He was about to grab his own bouncing cock with his right hand to start stroking himself, but decided to do something else instead.

“Wanna touch myself,” he exhaled, not having to work hard to sound desperate. “Can I do that? Please?”

Nero regretted that, from that position, he was unable to see the face Vergil showed when hearing his breathless, polite petition. However, with all the times they had had sex, he could easily picture the arousal in his father’s eyes with the louder grunt Vergil exhaled just before his hips smacked against his ass with more force, extracting new sounds from his lips.

“You may, son.”

Vergil’s ragged tone caused Nero to only need a few pumps to reach his orgasm. He called his father’s name while his fingers were coated in his cum, and it only took Vergil a few more thrusts to finish as well, with his perfect nails digging on Nero’s buttocks in that way that Nero secretly enjoyed.

The moment Vergil’s hands stopped holding his hips, Nero dropped forward to his side, sated but exhausted, and on the brink of falling asleep while Vergil removed and tied the used condom.

“Perhaps you should take a shower,” Nero heard Vergil say with an amused tone that indicated that his father was expecting the grumpy snort he let out as an answer.

“Tomorrow,” Nero managed to say in a slurred post-orgasmic tone, devoting the last efforts to remove his sweated t-shirt and sweater to throw it towards the edge of the bed. “G’night, dad.”

He didn’t hear Vergil’s answer, and he was deeply asleep when Vergil’s half-naked form pressed against his from behind to join him during the remaining scarce hours of the night.

* * *

Nero would have liked to sleep until it was past noon, but Vergil’s noisy alarm clock woke him up after mere four hours of sleep. Nero grunted in annoyance, blindly searching for the device in the nightstand before realizing that the noise was coming from the main bedroom.

When his last hope of stopping that horrible sound without standing up vanished, Nero cursed and kicked the sheets aside to get off the bed. He planted his feet on the floor before stomping in the other room to brusquely stop the clock. He sighed when silence reigned in once again. There was no way that he came back to sleep though, so once again he would need to be content with a later nap.

He didn’t need to check where Vergil was. His father always followed the same morning routine, so Nero started to talk to him even before reaching the bathroom.

“You know, someday I’d like you to explain to me what’s the point of setting an alarm clock when you ignore it every single day,” he said with exasperation while half-entering in the shower to turn the water on.

He obtained a light impatient glance from Vergil through the mirror where the man was looking at himself in order to finish combing his hair in his characteristic pushed-back style. Vergil was already dressed in his ‘casual’ attire, consisting of adjusted pants, those boots which were impossible to remove easily, and an expensive dark shirt whose small buttons that were a pain in the ass to unbutton, and that had driven Nero crazy during their bedroom sessions.

“Well, I can assure you that the logic behind that is way more understandable than doing extra hours without charging them.”

Nero rolled his eyes at the childish reply.

“Whatever, but come on: it’s Saturday. At least you could relax a bit. Wasting some time on the weekend isn’t gonna kill you, you know?”

He was about to step inside the shower when, making use of his speed, Vergil grabbed his arm and pinned him against the wash basin.

“Worry not, boy.” Nero’s breath caught at his throat when Vergil’s mouth ghosted over his. “After finishing with my pending duties, I certainly plan to waste the rest of the afternoon.”

After recovering from his stupor when hearing those promising words, Nero exhaled a surprised laugh that caused Vergil to frown.

“What?” Vergil never snarled per se, but that brusquer tone he used at that moment was the closest he would ever be to do it.

“Nothing. Just that I’m happy to know that you also missed me.”

Vergil half-closed his eyes as a result of his teasing words, like every time he was caught trying to conceal how he felt. Nero knew that it wasn’t within Vergil’s nature to express himself openly, and he didn’t need it. Vergil wasn’t a man of empty words, and neither someone who liked to repeat things twice. So, as long as there wasn’t any update in regards to Vergil’s feelings, Nero would assume they remained unchanged.

However, even while being aware of it, Nero couldn’t help to find funny how tense Vergil got whenever he was accused of doing something human. He knew he was playing with death by doing that, or at least with the possibility of an early fight, which was Vergil’s favorite method to solve discussions.

This time was no different, so when feeling a dangerous aura forming around Vergil, Nero didn’t hesitate in reversing their positions and capture his father’s mouth in a conciliatory kiss, his hands settling on Vergil’s trousers to unzip them.

“And about those unfinished duties, sorry dad, but they will have to wait a little more.”

As much as Vergil enjoyed Nero’s challenging attitude in bed, Nero had learned that, sometimes, showing a certain level of submission was almost as effective, and given how his father had acted the previous night, he decided to play that card by promptly kneeling in front of Vergil.

His father's angry glare turned into a light surprised, approving glance, indicating Nero that he had been forgiven from his teasing, or that, at least, his punishment had been postponed. Without averting his eyes from Vergil’s, Nero liberated his father's half-erected cock from his underwear, anticipation also running through his veins when Vergil grabbed his head with force, letting him know that he would be in charge of imposing the rhythm.

Nero took a good grip of the base of Vergil’s cock and started the blowjob foreplay by rolling his tongue around the round tip, causing his father to hum while his fingers tightened in his head. Nero had barely accommodated Vergil’s cock inside his mouth and was about to bob his head when the office’s bell sounded, which made him release the member from his mouth to look up at his father with confusion.

“Were you gonna meet with a client or something?”

Vergil sighed, visibly annoyed for having been interrupted.

“I wouldn’t have allowed you to initiate this if that was the case.” Vergil tucked his now softened member inside his underwear and proceeded to button his pants again while Nero stood up. “Besides, weren’t _you_ expecting a new arm from that friend of yours?”

Nero’s eyes illuminated at the comment. Now he remembered that Nico had promised that she would send him a new devil breaker that _they both_ would be able to enjoy, so he was really eager to see that new weapon. He knew how talented Nico was - even if their friendship contract forbade them from ever admitting such a thing to each other - so maybe the woman had managed to add a sword feature to the arm, knowing that It was Vergil’s favorite way of fighting.

He was so eager to see if Vergil’s assumption was right that he was about to go to the main floor in his nude state. He cursed when his father pointed that out. He dressed with his used trousers and a loose, long-sleeved t-shirt in a rush before going to the stairs. He jumped the last two sets of steps and ran towards the door to open it wide, his expression of anticipation changing into one of stupor when realizing that the visitor wasn’t precisely the postman.

“Hey there, kid.”

Nero blinked twice while staring at Dante standing on the frame, with a heavy-looking bag hanging from his right shoulder. The man was dressed in his usual red coat and his style hadn’t changed one bit since the last time Nero saw him. The only change was his hair, that maybe was a little longer.

He didn’t have time to greet his uncle back, neither to ask him anything about why the hell he had gone missing during those months, because at that moment a set of steps sounded from inside the office and Dante’s eyes fixed in a point behind him.

“Nero, who is it—?”

Vergil wasn’t someone who was usually left at a loss of words, but without needing to look behind him, Nero realized that his twin’s presence had achieved so.

Nero suppressed a curse when feeling a thick tension falling between his father and uncle. He was about to talk to try to cut it, or at least to reduce it, when suddenly Dante smiled widely and waved his hand towards Vergil in a too carefree way.

“Hey, Verg! Long time no see~”

A silence fell. A really thick silence.

And then, the familiar sound of his father’s teleporting invaded the room.

Nero managed to step aside when Vergil reappeared with Yamato, lunging forward towards a pale Dante who barely had time to exhale a shocked ‘ _Holy shit_ — _!_ ’ and recover his weapon to stop the fatal stab directed at his chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dante's big mouth getting him in trouble as usual. I love him so much xDD


	3. Long time no see

Dante had been reluctant to see Vergil since their last collaboration, after realizing that his supposedly secret feelings could be more difficult to hide than he thought, but as usual, Trish had managed to convince him to do just the contrary.

Damn, it was a good thing that the woman was on his side. Dante was sure that she could easily talk him into jumping from a cliff, and even while falling he would keep believing it was the best plan ever. Her powers of persuasion were _that_ scary, and were also the culprits of his current situation: him, standing outside Red Grave’s office and knocking at the door while feeling more eager than nervous at the prospect of seeing his twin.

It was a pity that his enthusiasm only lasted until the door opened and Nero appeared in front of him.

He didn’t know if his sense of smell had got better with years, if his damn demonic blood had the blame for it, or if he had Vergil’s scent almost memorized, but he instantly recognized Vergil’s essence oozing from his nephew, the familiar aroma mixing with a lingering odor of sweat and sex that made Dante grab the backpack’s strap with more force, although without changing his expression.

O - kay. Maybe this time he’d be the one in trying to kill Trish, because it seemed that visiting his brother and nephew was an _even_ worse idea than he had thought it’d be.

“Hey there, kid.”

It was a luck that Nero was in that state of disbelief, or otherwise he could have noticed that his tone sounded more strained than it should.

He may be worrying for nothing. After all, he and the kid weren’t that close. Since the Savior’s incident, they hadn’t been much in touch, aside from a few calls and a visit to Fortuna that Dante made when learning about Nero’s identity, which ended with Dante not daring to tell the kid about it, something he had ended up regretting.

However, despite their lack of interactions, he knew that Nero was intuitive. He had to be if he was with Vergil, who was the less open person ever and whom probably Nero would need to read more times than not. And damn, _that_ was something that he should have taken into consideration before planting himself there like the dumb oaf he was. The last thing that he wanted was that the kid somehow learned about his damn crush on Vergil. And okay, he better _not_ express it in those terms because it made him feel like a pathetic teenager when he was scarily close to the human’s fifties.

Dante opened his mouth with the intention of making something up to leave the hell outta there asap, hoping that the excuse he came up with was enough to justify his absence for the following months; but, at that moment, the sound of steps sounded behind Nero, and the figure that appeared climbing down the stairs destroyed any opportunities that Dante had of fabricating a credible lie.

“Nero, who is it—?”

Shit, when was the last time Dante’s heart was beating so damn fast? Maybe it was when he met Vergil at the top of the Qliphoth, without knowing what to expect of their encounter. The tension surrounding them now was worse than then though. _Way_ worse.

Dante pushed back the urge of gulping. If there was an aspect of his personality that bothered enemies and allies in an equal way was his capacity of keeping a carefree attitude in situations where prudency would be the normal choice to make.

People tended to think that he was just an overconfident idiot, but the truth was that he devoted more thinking and strategy to the fights that he got himself into than what he was given credit for, and most of the times, that recklessness he displayed was less impulsive and more studied. It was a technique as valid as any other to get the upper hand at the start of the battle, and it worked wonders to destabilize the enemy while improving his chances of winning.

 _But_ , of course, there were always exceptions. There were moments when Dante’s impulsivity took the best of him, or times in which he was at a real loss of what to do and his automatic response was to follow that same technique, letting the nervousness take the reins.

“Hey, Verg! Long time no see~”

_Like right then._

Sadly, by when Dante regretted the words escaping his mouth, it was too late to fix the mistake. The only thing he could do when detecting Vergil’s dangerous aura was to drop his bag and reach for his sword when seeing his brother disappear.

He managed to stop Vergil’s stab by a scarily slim margin. A curse escaped him when the violence of the attack threw him back, making his back impact against the opposite building. Cracks formed in the bricked wall, small pieces of debris and dust falling over them before Dante was forced to crouch on the floor to avoid being beheaded by the semi-circular, horizontal attack that Vergil threw next.

“Damn, Verg, calm down for a bit!” Dante rolled around to put some distance between them and stood up with one hand extended in front of him, palm upright as if he was trying to placate an enraged beast. “You’re gonna destroy our hometown at this rate—”

Dante cursed again when, with a fake calm, Vergil turned his body to be facing him, accompanying the movement with the summoning of spectral, blue blades around his body. Dante realized at that moment that silence was his best chance of coming from that confrontation alive, since wasting energy through his mouth could be fatal.

Without losing his apparent composure, Vergil started to walk towards him, throwing those lethal blades with every step taken. Dante had no other alternative than running down the narrow street while avoiding the blades in any way he could, being it crouching, jumping or returning them by using his weapon as a shield, although that last option was too risky because if not performed with the correct timing, it could cause a pretty serious damage.

A moderate destruction was caused in all the buildings that Dante used to barricade himself. When Vergil _finally_ ran out of blades, Dante tried to make the most of that brief instant of peace to counterattack, but his brother didn’t give him the chance, teleporting in order to penetrate his personal space.

Vergil unsheathed and sheathed his sword in a movement so fast that the human eye would have difficulties to follow it, and even if Dante was able to do so, he wasn’t fast enough to avoid the bubble of multiple, fast slices that catapulted him against the asphalt.

Dante’s face twisted in a pained grimace with the new impact that removed all the air of his lungs. He hissed, feeling the discomfort of the not-very-deep but abundant wounds that now covered his body because of that last attack. Still laying on the ground, he saw the upside-down sight of Vergil changing the grip of his sword a second before appearing standing next to his head.

His pulse accelerated in his ears when recognizing that posture, the same that V had adopted that day to try to stab him with the Devil Sword Sparda, when he had just woken up from his one-month slumber.

Dante succeeded in placing his sword in a horizontal way against his chest to stop the pointy tip of Yamato. He gritted his teeth. The position that Vergil had forced himself into prevented him from doing anything than wasn't to invest all his energies on stopping his brother’s sword from continuing his deadly advance.

At that moment, the blade pinning him against the ground was imbued with demonic power, the purplish-blue light that it emanated reflexing in Vergil’s grey stare, that wasn’t showing anything but fury while the man redoubled his efforts of piercing through him.

It hit Dante then, that, from the very beginning, he had been unable to win that battle. The current fight wasn’t like the ones they had shared in the Underworld. There, they had just been having fun; sparring and catching up with all they had been missing in those two decades of absence.

Now, it was different. There was murderous intent behind each one of his brother’s blows, a goal of delivering the biggest possible pain that Dante hadn’t been sharing. Vergil was battling him to death; he was really going at him with the intention to kill, evoking the same vibes that Dante remembered from the times of Temen-ni-gru, and with Dante not being on that same mood, his possibilities to stand a chance against Vergil had been zero from the start.

It was ironic. With Vergil, the option of a fight was never out of the table, but among all the scenarios that had come to Dante’s mind when seeing Vergil again, the situation surrounding them had never been among them.

He had expected to find some awkwardness between them, and for sure having to hear questions that he preferred not to answer, but not him being forced to fight for his life.

 _‘Shit,_ ’ Dante thought when realizing he would be unable to keep that blade away from him for much longer unless he fought for real. ‘ _It seems that I screwed it up even more than I thought, huh?_ ’.

Dante was about to trigger, realizing that it was his only chance to avoid getting a broken sword and a mortal wound as a result of the fight, when out of nowhere, a light of energy landed next to them.

Dante and Vergil’s attention diverted towards it, their eyes fixing on Nero when this one was still in the process of turning back into his human form.

“Stay away from this, Nero,” Vergil warned in a threatening tone while the kid approached. “This is not your—”

Dante’s eyes opened wide when Nero blatantly ignored his father’s words, so similar to the ones he himself had pronounced during their last serious fight, and used his own weapon to hit Vergil’s, causing the sword to fall loudly on the ground.

The thick pause that followed Nero’s intervention was broken when Vergil hissed the next comment with poorly contained anger.

“Have you perhaps developed a death wish, boy?”

The respect that Dante already felt towards his nephew had suffered a boost with the defiant action, and it increased even more when the kid remained with that challenging stance, as if he was unaffected by Vergil’s menacing aura.

“No, I haven’t. Have _you_ developed some sudden amnesia, father?” Nero cracked his spectral hands over him while grabbing his sword with more force. “I told you back then that I wouldn’t let you kill each other, so if there’s something you two have to discuss, you’re gonna do it without spilling blood, understood?”

It took Dante too much to realize that he must look like an even bigger idiot while staring at the father-son discussion from the ground. He was starting to straighten his position when Vergil clicked his tongue in disgust before walking towards his fallen sword. Dante followed the movement with his eyes while being propped up by his forearm, observing Vergil as this one crouched with elegance to recover his sword.

“I have no intention of discussing any matters with this fool.”

Even if Vergil was talking about him, his brother’s icy cold comment was addressed to Nero, so Dante chose to remain in a resigned silence while Vergil triggered and flew away, taking his leave without sparing a single glance towards him.

Huh. It was curious. A moment ago, he thought that Vergil leaving him half-dead was the worst case scenario, but getting the cold shoulder like that was no fun either. In fact, among the two, he found himself preferring the first.

A deep sigh coming from his left made Dante focus on Nero. The kid kept looking at the distant figure of his father for a few seconds with patience before shifting his attention to him.

“Come on.” Nero extended his right arm towards him. “I’d prefer to leave before someone blames us for the damage.”

Dante exhaled a soft laugh while accepting the hand. At least, it was early in the morning and everything was very dark, so the probabilities of someone having witnessed the fight were slim

“Thanks, kid.” A light labored groan escaped him while raising to his feet with Nero’s help. “But you sure you don’t wanna go after your old man?”

Nero snorted and started walking towards the office, forcing Dante to give a couple of rapid steps to put himself at the kid’s level.

“Nah. It’s better to leave him alone when he’s like that.”

They had reached Devil May Cry by then. Nero entered while Dante recovered the backpack he had dropped in the threshold, joining the kid inside next.

“I haven’t had breakfast yet,” Nero commented while approaching the small, open kitchen situated on the right side of the office, just next to the fridge. “You wanna something?”

It took Dante a moment to realize that Nero had asked him a question, since he was still assimilating the contrast between Nero standing up to his father in his demonic form and the current domestic sight of the kid filling the kettle.

“I’m good.” He took the liberty of sitting on the sofa closest to where Nero was, leaving the backpack and sword next to him before leaning his elbows on his legs. “I already had a bite in the train.”

Nero nodded with his attention focused on turning on the stove.

“So, what brings you back to Red Grave? Business or pleasure?”

Dante chuckled at Nero’s choice of words.

“Necessity,” he answered, continuing observing Nero as this one recovered a clean frying pan from the small sink to place it a free hob next to the one occupied by the kettle. “Some demons blew up my office pretty badly, so business is dead there until I have the money to repair it.”

Nero nodded again and silence reigned for the following minutes. The kid continued preparing a couple of sandwiches in silence. The bubbling of the kettle was the only background sound invading the room until Nero started pan-frying the food, moment in which he talked.

“Then, you came back to join the family business in the area?”

Damn, whatever Nero was cooking smelled good. Now Dante kind of regretted having rejected the kid’s offer. Although, on the other hand, demanding food from his nephew when the kid had barely been present in his thoughts during those months would be too selfish even for him.

“That was the idea, yeah.” Dante rubbed his hands together a little nervously. “But now, I think it’s better if I continue my way. I’d prefer not causing you more trouble with your old man.”

His concern was dismissed with another snort.

“You’ve already caused it,” Nero said with irony, using a spatula to flip the sandwiches. “And since the harm is already done, at least you could wait until Vergil comes back to fix things, you know?”

Dante chuckled humorlessly and leaned back against the sofa, folding his arm in front of his chest. He doubted that their argument had such an easy fix as Nero was implying, but he preferred to belittle it by adopting his usual joking tone. The less the kid knew about it the better, after all.

“Sorry, kid, but I think I’ll pass. Waiting for my death to arrive isn’t the funniest of the plans.”

The sudden invocation of Nero’s spectral wings made Dante reach for his gun, thinking for a moment that the kid was going to continue what Vergil had left unfinished. However, Nero simply used the extra limbs to grab the plate with the grilled sandwiches, the kettle and two empty cups.

Well, _that_ was an original way of making the most of your demonic power, Dante thought with amusement, discreetly retiring his hand from his weapon before Nero brought everything to the coffee table.

“I don’t think that Vergil tries to kill you when he comes back.” Nero circled the table and sat down on the sofa while leaving some separation between them. If he had realized Dante’s previous scaredy-cat behavior, he wasn’t showing any signs of it. “Not for real, at least. He'll probably be back tonight, or tomorrow morning at most, and when he does, he should be more calmed down. I think.”

The kid sounded so convinced that Dante had difficulties in _not_ believing him, even if the last two words, spelled after a small pause, undermined the credibility of Nero’s argument.

“You sound as if it wasn’t the first time he does this.”

Nero huffed while serving himself some coffee in one of the cups.

“What, leaving to de-stress by killing demons? Of course he’s done it before. It’s his favorite method of venting.” Nero offered him a pointed look. “Although it’s been the first time that I’ve seen him so angry.”

Dante sustained Nero’s gaze without blinking or tensing. At least, all that practice of pretending to be hella fine even when he was feeling like shit was paying off now.

He didn’t know how much Nero knew about what happened during that last job that he and Vergil carried out. It was evident that, even if not immediately after finishing the mission, Vergil had succeeded in deducing that his love for him was a little deeper than it should, and was less than happy about it, if the way he had behaved, pouring all his efforts to kill him, was any indication.

However, by basing on Nero's attitude towards him, it didn’t seem as if Vergil had shared such knowledge with the kid. Otherwise, it was unlikely that such a calm mood had settled between them.

There had only been one time in which Dante had been about to confess, when Vergil was still merged with Urizen and the possibility of bringing him back looked out of reach. As usual, he had followed Trish’s advice and approached V, his brother’s more merciful half, in order to get out the burden that he had been carrying inside all those years, aware that it could very much be his last chance of putting his cards on the table before Vergil was gone, this time for good.

Fortunately, Nero interrupted them before he could do so, and when noticing the closeness that had transpired between V and him, the kid’s jealousy had been evident then, not without motive; so, for sure, Nero wouldn’t be acting so nicely in case of knowing the kind of thoughts Dante harbored towards his father.

Dante knew that it was just a matter of time that Nero discovered the truth, but the revelation wasn’t going to come from him. Delaying the tasks that he disliked to do was a talent that Dante mastered, and that was exactly what he planned to do then.

“Yeah, well, I’ve always had an innate talent for pissing people off.”

Nero huffed, starting to approach his cup to his lips.

“Oh, I know. But this time you’ve taken the cake, worrying your brother like that.”

The silence that fell between them was filled with shock.

During it, Dante blinked slowly, convinced that he had understood something wrong.

“Sorry, what?”

Nero frowned then, looking at him as if he was dumb.

“What? It was you the one who told him you’d call soon, but it’s been three months since then and you never did.”

Dante’s jaw dropped at that. At first, he thought that the kid was mocking him, but Nero had to be a damn great actor to be pretending the reproach in his voice.

“But... But what the heck, _he_ is the one who disappears as a hobby!” he exclaimed, completely stunned for the absurdity of Nero’s previous comment. “And every time he’s done it, he hasn’t returned in _years_! He has no right to complain about me being away some months!”

“Maybe not, but that doesn’t change the fact that he is mad about it.”

Again, it was very difficult not to believe Nero with the determination the boy displayed.

“Did he tell you that?”

Nero deadpanned at him.

“You kidding, right? It’s your brother we’re talking about, the one who thinks he’s gonna get hives if he shows too many emotions.”

“Then how do you know that he just doesn’t hate my guts for something else?”

“Because I caught him a couple of times trying to talk to someone on the phone and getting irritated when there was no answer.”

Dante’s eyes opened more at that. He remembered that Trish had commented something when he was about to take the train, about multiple missed calls from the Red Grave office, but he had assumed it had been Nero’s doing.

“So it wasn’t you the one who called?”

Nero shook his head.

“Nope. I told him that we could try going to search for you when I found out he was trying to reach you, but I backed off when Vergil was about to fight me for suggesting it.” Nero shrugged before reaching for one of the sandwiches. “I guess he hated to admit he was acting like a worrywart. Because I mean, it was obvious that you were gonna be fine. It was you, you know? You’re annoying as hell, but also tough as fuck. No matter who’s tried to kill you, you’re still here. I bet Vergil knew that it was stupid to worry, but he still did, and for sure _that_ pissed him off more than whatever bullshit you did to him.”

Dante’s pulse skipped a couple of beats while Nero proceeded to eat his sandwich. Actually, the kid’s theory to explain his father’s anger wasn’t as ridiculous as he had initially thought. Vergil was someone who considered himself the epitome of rationality, even if he wasn't.Control was something Vergil had always strived for, so it wasn’t weird that the man was deeply irritated for experiencing that irrational concern.

It was an explanation that would have never entered Dante’s mind, so the laugh that escaped him was showing both incredulity and relief. Maybe he had been worrying for nothing? Could it be that Vergil _really_ didn’t know the extent of his feelings? Because if that was the case, damn, he would stop complaining when people told him he had lady luck by his side.

“Damn.” He uncrossed his arms to rest his elbows on his knees, hands hanging between them. “Your old man is an incoherent bastard.”

Nero nodded eagerly with his mouth full after having taken almost half of the sandwich with just one bite.

“Yep, your brother is,” Nero said with his mouth full, swallowing what it remained of his sandwich before standing up, surprising Dante with a pat on the shoulder. “But still, it’s your fault he’s pissed, so you better not pass the buck and do something to placate him when he’s back.”

“But what the hell can I do?” Dante protested whike Nero circled the table to go to the stairs. “It seems that Verg will just be satisfied by killing me, and sorry, I may be old, but not _so_ old to offer my life as an apology.”

Dante wouldn’t have been surprised if Nero had continued his way upstairs, ignoring his protests, but the boy stopped and turned around to face him with his arms akimbo.

“Well, there may be a way he doesn’t try to kill you when he’s back.”

Dante looked at Nero with interest.

“I’m all ears. Anything that prevents my pretty head from ending hanging on the wall as a trophy.”

“Don’t worry, that’d never happen. Vergil is very picky with the art that decorates the room. It has to be of certain standard.” Dante was too slow to realize that Nero had just sassed him and couldn’t reply anything before the kid continued talking. “There are a couple jobs that have been waiting at the desk since forever. They are very well paid, and Vergil thinks the clients have potential to be used in the future, _but_ a lot of sewer hunting and searching is involved, so it’s a pain in the ass to deal with them. If you take care of them, you’ll be doing him a favor.”

Dante half-closed his eyes, pointing his finger at Nero while adopting a suspicious tone.

“And how do I know you ain’t using me to do _you_ a favor?”

Nero shrugged, not feeling offended at all by the lack of trust.

“You don’t. But if you have a better alternative to avoid being murdered by my father, I’m all ears.”

Dante exhaled a defeated sigh, passing the hand he had used to point at Nero through his hair.

“Well, I guess I don’t have much to lose,” he yawned, leaning back against the sofa heavily. “‘Kay, kid, I’m in. I’ll take care of your dirty job, but can I drop dead here just for a minute? There were some annoying kids shouting in the damn train and I’ve barely rested.”

Nero nodded.

“No problem. You can also rest in the guest room if you want—” Dante looked at Nero when seeing this one interrupt himself and continue with a light hurried tone. “But you’ll have to wait a bit for it. I have to clean it and stuff.”

Dante rapidly deduced the reason behind Nero’s awkwardness. An unpleasant pressure appeared in his chest, like every time that he was reminded that Vergil and Nero’s relationship went beyond the conventional father and son’s one, but the impulse to tease the kid was too big to let it pass.

“So Verg is picky about ornaments, but doesn’t mind if the guestroom sheets are dirty with cum, huh?”

Oh boy, the way Nero’s face turned bright red when hearing his comment was so worth it.

“What the—it’s _not_ that!”

The high-pitched note that Nero’s tone acquired before ending snarling the end of the sentence told Dante he had been more spot on with his vulgar assumption than he thought. Damn, the kid surely got worked up for a mere comment. For sure Vergil would be using that to his advantage in bed.

And okay, he better stop that line of thought right then. He may have some masochistic tendencies but thinking about his brother fucking the kid was a too hard play for him.

“Relax, kid, it was a dumb joke.” He removed the joking component from his tone before talking next. “I just wanna rest my eyesight for a bit, so the sofa is good.”

Nero grunted as an answer, and Dante had to suppress a chuckle when realizing that the kid’s ears were still of a vibrant red color.

“‘Kay. I’ll go gather the jobs’ reports.” Dante was about to close his eyes when Nero signaled the plate on the table with his chin. “And eat that before it gets too cold.”

Dante straightened his position at the mention of the food.

“Wait, aren’t you going to eat this?” Dante inquired hopefully, signaling the sandwich that remained on the plate. Nero shook his head no.

“It’s for you. I’ve seen you have a family pizza for breakfast, so there’s no way that whatever you ate in the train was enough to fill your fat belly.”

Dante missed the insult, since he had been stuck on that first part, with Nero admitting having cooked something for him.

“Thanks, kid. You’re a sweetheart.”

The funny thing was that he really meant those words, but it was logical that Nero rolled his eyes, thinking that he was joking even if the appellative had escaped Dante by accident.

“Just make sure not to fall asleep until late. Because if Vergil comes back and sees you here—”

“—he’ll murder me in my sleep, yep, duly noted.”

Nero nodded one last time towards him before disappearing upstairs.

Once the kid was out of sight, Dante exhaled a deep breath, reached for the sandwich and took a bite, cursing in awe when it tasted even better than it looked.

Damn, it was a pity that the kid was so damn nice, because it certainly made the task of hating him for stealing Vergil from him a little too impossible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be some Vergil's POV soon, I promise :)


	4. Outsider

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, Vergil's POV is here! :)

Vergil shook off the blood of his blade with a rapid movement of his arm. He had spent the last few hours in the Underworld, clearing the hordes of enemies that didn’t stop coming. Most of them had been lesser demons whose difficulty to beat lied in their number, although he had had the luck of facing some groups of angelos who were powerful enough to provide him with a decent level of challenge and entertainment.

However, it got to the point that the opponents with a standard level of intelligence chose to retreat, and even the most brainless kind of creatures, the kind who dared to attack him without a proper strategy and without teaming up with their companions, had a limit to ignore their instinct of self-preservation. It didn’t matter how reckless those demons could be, the sight of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of corpses of their kin covering the ground was enough to make them reconsider the advantages of facing an adversary whose current motivation was killing to kill time.

Predictably, Vergil ended up being the last soul standing. His heavy breathing was the only disturbance in the calm reigning in the deserted place, since there was no trace of the familiar growls and crawling sounds of living things that used to invade the place. It would take a while until demons dared to prowl in the area, afraid of the level of annihilation Vergil had carried out.

At least, the continued fighting had helped him sooth the murder instincts that his foolish brother had awaken in him his flippant way of presenting himself at his door.

Vergil took a deep breath and opened a portal leading back to Red Grave, pushing away any thoughts involving his twin. He had devoted plenty of them to him already; or, more accurately, _wasted_.

It was late in the evening when Vergil reappeared in one of the narrow alleys surrounding the Devil May Cry office. The cold of the night was something that Vergil didn’t use to pay attention to, but the absence of his coat made him be more aware of it. He sighed with annoyance when his mind betrayed him by traveling once again towards the culprit of the chill invading his body. Certainly, his brother's capacity to cause him trouble even without trying hard was as impressive as usual.

He was tense when entering the office, not sure of what to expect to find inside. The lights were off, and there was no trace of people on the main floor. At least, it seemed that his brother had shown some intelligence for once, catching the hint of not showing his face for the following days. However, it was still too soon for Nero to have gone to sleep.

The frown that had appeared between his brows vanished when hearing the sound of the shower from the first floor. Without turning the lights on, Vergil left his sword resting against the desk on his way to the stairs.

He climbed them up while starting unbuttoning his shirt, determined to join Nero in the shower whether the boy wanted it or not, though that second outcome had never happened yet.

Vergil doubted it ever would. The shower was the second place where he had claimed Nero the most, and after the events of the day, pressing his son’s body against the tiles to have his way with him sounded like the most appealing plan.

Although, that night, he would not mind ceding control either.

Beating up his initial reluctance to let Nero be in charge in bed had been an excellent decision. By then Nero had become a skilled lover, perhaps rivalling Vergil when he was his son’s age, even if he would never admit it. In no time, Nero would be more than able to make his mind go blank one day while getting fucked, as Vergil had already achieved several times with him, and that was _exactly_ what Vergil found himself craving.

By when Vergil reached the bathroom, the imperious want he was experiencing was impossible to hide, and was the reason why he opened the closed door with more emphasis than intended, giving quite a startle to the person inside.

A person who was not Nero, and who made Vergil’s eyes snap uncharacteristically open in stupor.

“Jesus, Verg,” a very naked Dante exclaimed while snapping a hand against his chest, which was going up and down with a fast rhythm because of the scare. “There are easier ways to kill me, you know—?”

For the second time that day, a Sparda ended up pinned against that washbasin, though the intent behind Vergil’s actions couldn’t be more different than with Nero that morning. His right hand closed around Dante’s throat in a threatening grip, his left turned into a fist next to his body. At least, he obtained some satisfaction with the feeling of Dante’s Adam apple bobbing against his palm when the man swallowed, surely out of fear

“You have some nerve, little brother, invading someone else’s bathroom without permission.”

“Listen, Vergil, I _really_ don’t think it’s a good idea you get close to me right now.”

Vergil was about to remind Dante that it wasn’t within his power to tell him what he could do or not when it hit him then, the reek emanating from Dante, intense enough to make him step back while pressing the back of his hand against his nose and mouth.

“I warned you.”

Vergil glared at Dante when hearing his patient tone.

“How on earth can you reek so much?”

Dante exhaled a short laugh.

“The sewers. They’re as stinky as I remembered, if not worse.” He then signaled towards the shower with his thumb. “So, I guess you still want to kill me and all that, but can I shower first? And in the meantime, check your desk, ‘kay? There’re a few things for you there.”

Again, Vergil would have liked to tell Dante that he was in no position to give him orders, but the urge of retching was starting to feel difficult to control. That unpleasant smell of humidity and filth always brought distressing memories to Vergil, so he simply hissed a commanding ‘ _Be quick_ ’ before snapping the door closed behind him. Vergil’s eyebrow twitched when hearing a muffled chuckle at the other side of the door. His brother was lucky to be stinking so much, or for sure Vergil would have reentered the room to make his brother pay for his mocking.

Once he was back in the first room, he turned the lights on and approached his desk. As Dante had said, there were some things there.

He first grabbed the white paper standing out on the wooden surface. It was a note from Nero, his rough handwriting was unmistakable. The boy had written that Nico had called him begging for his help to try to hunt a weird species of demon that had appeared around Fortuna, and that she wanted a specimen for ‘investigation purposes’. Nero had finished the note saying that he’d be back in a week or so, and that in the meantime he should ‘ _make peace with Dante ‘cause he deserves it_ ’. A big arrow had been drawn on the paper, pointing to a closed box of considerable size that was also resting on the table.

Vergil folded the note in two - repeating the action when the paper didn’t end perfectly aligned - and opened the box. He frowned with confusion while looking at the two old, dirty objects stored inside. He extracted the items one after one and examined them with interest: the first was a hand mirror whose glass miraculously kept being in one piece, although some small cracks were beginning to appear in the joints between the glass and the surrounding decoration; the second was a dagger that had seen better days, but it was still sharp and its elaborated, almost sophisticated design hinted that it had belonged to someone of nobility in the past.

It took him a few minutes of careful examination to understand why those relics sounded so familiar to him. His eyes opened more then, when Dante’s previous comment allowed him to connect the dots: those relics were mentioned in job petitions he had ignored until then, preferring to delay that visit to the humid city underground as long as there were other pending jobs.

“I swear I tried to clean them the best I could, but damn, removing demons’ fluids isn't easy, you know?”

Surprise was still bathing Vergil’s expression when his eyes shifted from the objects to Dante. The man was climbing down the stairs while tying his damp hair, and it took Vergil a moment to notice what was off with Dante’s attire.

“Why are you dressing like that?”

Dante frowned while finishing adjusting his messy bun, looking briefly at his loose sport pants and tank-top before meeting Vergil’s inquisitive gaze again.

“Dressed how?”

“With your nephew’s wardrobe.”

His impatient tone made Dante exhale an understanding ‘ _Aah_ ’ before barking a short laugh.

“Because if you thought that _I_ reeked, you should have smelled my clothes. I had to use my conviction skills to stop Nero from burning them when I came back, and since my other spare wasn’t as clean as I thought, Nero was nice enough to lend me his.”

Vergil nodded, with his eyes still fixed in his son’s clothes. So he had missed Nero by minutes. In fact, if he hadn’t used a portal to come back, perhaps they would have run into each other while he was going back to the office. However, it was not as if he had the intention of following Nero to Fortuna in any case. Vergil preferred to avoid the jobs that involved returning to that city, since Nero always insisted in stopping to visit his annoying ex-fiancée and children.

Besides, staying behind was always more profitable. The boy usually came back from those visits with an extra predisposition to please his every desire, as if he wanted to compensate him for keeping close bonds with people besides himself. And of course, Vergil _never_ hesitated in exploiting those moments of docility, making sure to lengthen their night activities to the maximum and push Nero to the limit until the boy had no other choice than moaning and begging to get what he wanted.

“O - kay, I think I better remove these clothes right now before you mistake me for your kid and decide to jump on me.”

Dante’s mocking words made Vergil be back to reality. He realized that the memories of him ripping those same clothes off Nero’s body must have somehow shown in his expression while looking at his brother.

“Worry not, Dante,” Vergil said in the same tone. “If I ever decide to jump on you, it will be with the only purpose of killing you.”

Dante chuckled, tilting his head.

“Don’t know if I should feel relieved or depressed for it.” Since Dante continued talking in a lighter note, Vergil guessed that he must have imagined the bitterness impregnating his brother’s previous words. “And speaking of killing, since we have managed to say so many sentences straight without interchanging blows, does that mean that you have forgiven me for all those sleepless nights you’ve suffered because of me?”

Vergil’s fingers gripped the dagger with more force, while his eyes half-closed menacingly.

“Did Nero tell you that?”

The shocked expression that Dante showed took him by surprise.

“Wait, did you _really_ have trouble sleeping because I was gone?”

Vergil froze, realizing too late that his brother had just thrown a baseless accusation that was only partly correct, since Dante’s unknown whereabouts had not affected his sleep _that_ much.

Perhaps there had been a couple of nights when he had gone through certain difficulties to fall asleep, wondering where his stupid brother could have gone. After all, their last job, though more challenging than initially expected, had ended without incidents. They had succeeded, they parted ways after dividing the earnings, and Dante had left promising he would get in touch soon.

During his life, Vergil had been forced to improvise more than he would have liked, but despite that, he had never given up in his wish control everything he could. He knew there would always exist uncontrollable, unpredictable situations; his human half falling in love with Nero had been one of them. But still, creating inner schemas of what could or not happen in a close future that Vergil kept doing in an unconscious manner.

Dante going suddenly missing had been something that he had _not_ contemplated, and the impossibility of contacting him had turned out to be more frustrating than Vergil could have ever imagined.

After all, they could have spent most part of their childhood fighting because of their crashing personalities and need of competition, but their connection had always been stronger than any argument they could have gotten themselves into. They may have been separated as children, and ended up on opposite sides of the crossroad when each one chose the nature that the other one decided to forsake; but, it did not matter how many years passed, Vergil had always known where his brother was, and where to find him.

 _He_ was the one being in constant movement, the one who no one would find strange if it suddenly disappeared not to come back, not Dante. His brother was supposed to be his constant; the one who never stopped meddling in matters that were nothing of his concern; the one who was always there, ready to fight him when the opportunity arose.

Dante going absent, him being unable to reach Dante whenever he felt inclined to, was _not_ how things were supposed to be. So, it was only logical that he had been angry - not worried, but angry - when discovering he was unable to do something that he had always taken for granted.

“Of course not,” Vergil said with a tone that wanted to convey that Dante’s suggestion was ridiculous, preposterous. “You may lack the maturity that should be expected of someone of your age, but you are no child worthy of any worry.”

A new amused smirk appeared in his Dante’s face.

“Who said anything about worrying, brother?”

The slip caused Vergil to grit his teeth.

“It’s obvious that _that_ is what you were implying, but I can assure you that my rest was just slightly affected due to the inconveniences that your sudden absence brought.”

Dante nodded almost in slow motion, with that irritating smile still in place. Vergil’s eyes briefly stopped in his sword, ready to use it against Dante post-haste, but his brother sounding serious next made him delay that fight for the time being.

“Well, for what it is worth, it didn’t ever cross my mind that me leaving was gonna cause you so many… ‘inconveniences’. So I’m sorry, Verg. Really.” Dante’s tone lost seriousness and gained smugness while signaled the box with his eyes. “But hey, for sure those things are enough to compensate for it. The dagger is some cool stuff, huh? I _knew_ you’d love it.”

Vergil’s annoyance receded faster than he would have liked when listening to Dante’s too cocky tone, that made the ghost of a smirk appear in his face. His brother’s childishly proud expression made him remember all the times when a lot younger Dante hurried to him with his eyes shining with enthusiasm, in order to show a last discovery to him.

“I shall admit that this recent finding is way better than the ones you used to show me.”

Dante snorted while Vergil returned that dagger to the box with reluctance, while thinking that the possibilities of him keeping the relic to himself instead of returning it to the client at the end were high.

“Hey, it’s not my fault that you were such a boring child that didn’t know how to appreciate my presents.”

“I’m quite sure that the problem laid within the poor taste of those gifts.”

“Come on, any normal kid would have killed to see that giant toad!”

“And it was... curious to see, until it decided to eat the pages or my favorite book.”

Dante had the nerve of sighing, as if he was the patient one.

“Damn, your son deserves a damn medal, being forced to stand a picky prick like you by his side.”

Vergil offered Dante an arrogant smile while closing the box again.

“As far as I know, he doesn’t have as many complaints about my persona as you.” Vergil pretended not to see Dante’s skeptic expression to formulate a question that, under normal circumstances, should have come before everything else. “And now that you have brought up our childhood, I still don’t know what made you go back to our hometown.”

Dante exhaled a short laugh. 

“That’s your fault for trying to stab me instead of asking.” Dante rubbed the back of his neck. “Long story short: the last solo job I did turned crazier than expected, I ended up in jail for a misunderstanding, and by when the bail was paid, the office where I worked was no longer there. Not in one piece, at least.”

Vergil looked at Dante in an analytic silence. Dante was making a considerable effort of pretending to be relaxed while answering, Vergil had to give him that. There was no trace of tension in his body, nothing in his expression or tone that hinted that there was something he was omitting. However, that uncharacteristic calm, that excessive lowered guard that never used to exist between them, was what made Vergil confirm his suspicions about Dante hiding something.

“I can see now why it was so difficult to get in touch with you.”

Again, his words didn’t provoke any reaction in Dante more than a studied resigned smile, proving that his twin couldn’t be more in guard even if his posture wanted to say otherwise. It was evident that whatever Dante was preferring not to say, Vergil would not be able to extract it from him that night, but it was okay. It was not the first time that he was forced to be patient to get what he wanted, and for sure a chance would present in the future to learn about that secret that Dante wanted to keep from him so badly.

“Yeah, Trish also had trouble contacting me, but I couldn’t give my true name to the police, you know? That would have worsened Devil May Cry’s reputation even more.”

Vergil took a mental note of Dante using his alias when wanting to go unnoticed before resuming their previous topic.

“So that means that, until your usual workspace is fixed, you plan to steal some of the jobs of the area.”

Dante chuckled at his choice of words.

“Don’t worry, brother: it will be temporary. And of course, since you and the kid are the ones in charge of this branch, you have priority to choose the jobs you wanna do, so…” Dante signaled at himself with his thumb, “feel free to leave all the stinky sewers to me.”

Vergil nodded and crossed his arms after a brief pause.

“Alright. In that case, tomorrow we’ll better discuss the terms and conditions of your payment, since of course part of your earnings will still be going to this branch.”

Dante nodded distractedly, concealing a yawn behind his fist while starting to walk towards the stairs.

“Okey-dokey, I’ll leave the paperwork to you.” Vergil was about to proceed to tidy up the desk that, as usual, Nero had managed to turn into a mess in just one day, when Dante stopped at the bottom of the stairs with his hands joined. “Oh damn, I almost forgot: could you lend me some cash beforehand?”

Vergil sighed with patience, Dante’s apologetic grimace also bringing memories of when, as children, Dante asked him to share his weekly pay because he had already wasted his. Now he understood why Dante was such a disaster in the management of the office. His poor skills to save money went back long ago.

“Why does it not surprise me?” Vergil looked at Dante with suspicion. “What do you need it for?”

“To pay the motel,” Dante misinterpreted the reason why he half-closed his eyes. “And don’t worry, I’ve made sure to choose the cheapest one, so 50$ should be more than enough to pay for the first two nights until I do some jobs and get some money.”

Vergil stared at Dante in disbelief.

“Again, what do you need _that_ for?”

Dante blinked slowly when hearing his confused, impatient question.

“I don’t know, Verg, maybe because sleeping on the streets is something I’d prefer to avoid?”

Vergil blinked once too, even more slowly, before answering in the same sarcastic tone Dante had used.

“And you are going to do that when there is an unoccupied guest room upstairs because...”

Dante’s way to reply to his answer was to open his eyes wide.

“Oh. _Oh_.” Dante exhaled a laugh that sounded kind of nervous. “I’d just assumed that you’d prefer to be left on your own with the kid, instead of having an outsider around.”

Vergil looked at Dante with an unreadable expression. He guessed that Dante’s presence in the office was something that he should discuss with Nero, given that he wasn’t the only tenant of the place. However, he had assumed that his brother would stay. It felt like the right thing.

“You are right, Dante. Privacy is something I greatly value.”

“See? Then there’s nothing else to talk about: I’ll grab my stuff and—”

“But you are not an outsider.”

Vergil didn’t believe he had said anything of special importance asides from the truth. After all, their interactions may not follow the normal standards, since dueling siblings to death was not a practice commonly adopted, but they were still family.

However, the way Dante’s eyes opened and the shocked chuckle that escaped him proved that his brother hadn't expected his answer and felt relieved for it.

Perhaps was that the reason why Dante had left? Maybe the man had thought that, now that Vergil had Nero, his presence in his life was no longer necessary? Because in that case, his brother was even more foolish than he thought.

After all the sacrifices he had been forced to be made as a child, Vergil had become someone who didn’t easily relinquish the things he managed to obtain, being it power or people he cared about. His brother’s presence wasn’t something that he had always approved in the past. He had often thought that everything would have been better if the man had never come to exist. For starters, their mother wouldn’t have been forced to choose who to save first, and for sure his life would have been easier as a result.

But the events of the past year, including the unwanted liberation of his human half, had allowed him to see things in another light.

“ _This demon is your ‘reason’. Your reason for fighting._ ”

That was what V... What _he_ said to Dante back then, and it went both ways. His desire of battling Dante may not be ever sated, but things were different now. Now, the option of irremediably killing Dante wasn’t on the table anymore, because in case of doing that, he would be losing someone who he could never replace.

Nero being part of his life was something Vergil had really come to treasure, but Dante had been there for much longer than that, and he wanted it to keep being that way. So, for the time being, Dante _had_ to be around, within reach, at least until he confirmed the reasons behind Dante’s strange behavior, or until he was sure that his brother didn’t plan to disappear on him again.

“Well, it’s true that crashing here will be comfier.” Dante’s cheery comment made Vergil focus again, while wondering how his thoughts had deepened so much when they came from such a trivial topic such as Dante occupying the guest room. “Besides, you still owe me for that week I kept you hidden after returning from the Underworld.”

Vergil clicked his tongue, but his annoyance wasn’t as big as he wanted to show, since he was in part thankful to come back to their usual banter.

“Dante, I remind you that you were generously paid to complete a job and you spent a whole month doing nothing but sleeping, which forced V to go on a trip with Nero whose expenses, let me tell you, were not precisely cheap.” Vergil leaned forward, resting both hands on the table’s surface while offering Dante a smirk, enjoying how Dante started to sweat while poorly suppressing a gulp. “So, do you really want to discuss how much _you_ owe me, little brother?”

Vergil’s satisfied smirk was still in his face when Dante cleared his throat with nervousness and signaled the stairs with both index fingers before muttering a cheery ‘ _Good night, brother_ ’ that he graciously returned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was supposed to be shorter than the previous ones, but as usual, whenever V or Vergil are involved, their overthinking causes everything to turn longer xD


	5. The dangers of routine

Nero exhaled a long, tired breath before dropping on the ground, next to the fallen, albino blade that he had _finally_ managed to locate and kill. His bloody sword was still piercing the demon’s body, but he decided to leave it there for the time being while sitting back on his hands.

He had let his head drop back and closed his eyes when the noisy sound of Nico’s van breaking its way through invaded the Mitis Forest. As usual, the woman managed not to run over him by a really slim margin. She stopped a mere meter away from where he was resting, raising some dirt in the process that joined the mud that was already covering his body after the battle.

“Oh, YEAH!” Nico stuck her head out of the van’s window and clapped her hands while barking an enthusiastic laugh. “Oh goddess, the things I’m gonna do with this. I _knew_ you’d be the most indicated dude to handle that lizard.”

Nero snorted and opened his eyes to throw a reproachful glance at Nico from the ground.

“You never said this ‘lizard’ was gonna be so damn big.”

“Bah, he’s just twice the size of a normal blade. That’s nothing for an experienced devil hunter like you.”

“You should work on your sweet-talk, Nico. You’re pretty bad at it.”

“Oh, come on, don’t pretend you didn’t have fun hunting this thing!”

“That’s _not_ the point! You said it’d take us a few days to catch this bastard, and we’ve spent two damn weeks trying to find it.”

“But time flies when the company is good, amarite?” Nico sighed and raised her hands with the new look Nero threw at her. “Okay, okay, fine, I admit that my estimations to catch this guy were a little off this time.”

“‘This time’?”

“ _But_ I can come up with three big advantages of having done this job.”

“Of course you can. You _always_ find arguments to justify exploiting me.”

“First, Fortuna is way safer without this demon around.”

“...Okay, you have a point there.”

“Second, that guy is gonna provide me with very cool materials with which I’ll be able to do _even cooler_ stuff, and of course, you’re gonna get a discount.”

“...Okay, that’s not bad at all.”

“Aaand third, you get to spend some bonding time with your closest friend, who you have cruelly abandoned since starting your own business and love life with your dad.”

Nero snorted again and stood up, not feeling the least guilty for those last accusatory words because Nico had said them while displaying a wide, teasing smile, an evidence that she was joking.

“I hope that that ‘closest friend’ is nice enough to take me to the train station.” Nero recovered his sword, extracting it with difficulty from the hardened corpse of the demon. “I wanna take the last train.”

“Sure!” Nico’s grin turned mischievous. “I wouldn’t like that your daddy punished you for being a bad boy that isn’t at home in time.”

“ _Nico..._ ”

“But before that, can you please help me bring that guy inside? I’d like to examine the body in one piece.”

Nero exhaled a defeated sigh when Nico stepped down the vehicle while muttering a song to herself. At that moment he kind of understood Vergil when the man accused him of being a goody two-shoes, since despite all the undeserved teasing, he helped Nico lift the damn heavy demon, cursing and sweating along the whole process.

When the big demon was stored inside the vehicle, they made a first stop in Nico’s lab, which was the one that his father had previously owned and that she had decided to inherit because, like she said, ‘ _Agnus may have been a top-rated asshole and a horrible father, but his freaking cool lab didn’t have the blame for it_ ’.

Once the weird blade specimen was deposited inside the lab, Nico kept her word and drove towards the station by making use of her usual - illegal - speed. Nero made the most of the short trip to take a shower between curses, due to the constant bumps that made his elbows and back impact against the tiles of the too small cubicle.

Since time was ticking, he was forced to leave the van when Nico was still in the process of ‘parking’ it. He replied to Nico’s shouted goodbyes and thanks with a rapid wave of his hand before rushing to buy the train ticket. The man in the booth handed him the ticket when the immediate departure of the last train to Red Grave was being announced, so he cursed and resumed his previous run towards the designated platform.

Nero managed to enter the train in the last second, when the doors were closing behind him. He walked towards his carriage with his breathing still labored after the run. The train was pretty full and his seat happened to be next to a young woman, who blushed slightly while standing up so that he could drop next to the window.

He waited for the train to be on the move before extracting his mobile from the pocket of his trousers. He had bought Nico’s old cell phone from the woman after the incident with the Qliphoth. He hadn’t needed one until then, since he had always worked alone, but during that mission and while collaborating with V he had realized what little practical it was to depend on phone booths only when you wanted to get in touch with your partner.

It was a pain in the ass to carry something that could easily break, but he couldn’t deny its usefulness, even if Nico got frustrated because he didn’t make ‘the most of its potential’, meaning that he refused to let Nico install ‘some cool apps’ whose interest Nero was unable to see. Of course, Vergil refused to get one for himself, probably because he hated the idea of being less skillful than Nero at something, which meant that he could only hope to get in touch with his father if the man was in the office.

Not that such a thing mattered now, because Nero had just realized that, again, he had forgotten to charge the mobile and the device was dead. Also, he was pretty sure that he hadn’t brought the keys of the office with him, but it was okay. Friday was the day when Vergil organized the paperwork of the week and studied the jobs to do for the next, so he was pretty sure that Vergil would be in the office by when he arrived that evening.

Nero returned his dead mobile to his pocket and folded his arms in front of his chest, closing his eyes while leaning the side of head against the window. Vergil didn’t like talking on the phone, so when Nero had called a week ago to warn that his job with Nico would take longer than expected, the conversation was as short as usual. He at least managed to learn that his father and uncle had sorted things out, and that Dante was still around, taking care of the jobs that Vergil found less appealing.

The last thing that entered Nero’s mind before falling into a long, well-deserved nap was that he hoped that Vergil wasn’t exploiting Dante too much.

He slept throughout the entire route. He woke up several hours later, feeling a light sting on his neck due to the bad position he had adopted, and something else in his lower half that made him curse to himself. Well, he couldn’t remember what he had dreamed with clarity, but the annoying boner pressing against his jeans was a pretty loud hint of the nature of those dreams.

He swallowed back an exasperated groan, insulting himself because he should have known that the probabilities of waking up with a hard-on were high. During those two weeks he had already suffered from some awkward morning erections while sleeping in Nico’s van, having to sneak rapidly inside the bathroom before the woman woke up so that she didn’t notice the tent in his underwear. It was so annoying. Less than a year ago, he’d have been able to go on for days, even full weeks, without having to jerk off, but his father had fucking changed that. It was Vergil’s fault that his libido was now over the clouds, and damn, he was gonna make him take responsibility for it.

At least, the long coat he was wearing would be enough to conceal it, though it was still uncomfortable as hell to do all the way to the office in that situation.

When he was finally in front of Devil May Cry, his impatience became evident with the brusque bangs that he delivered at the door, and which caused Vergil to open it with an expression intended to scare off whoever intruder that was daring to knock in such an impolite way.

His father’s eyes opened more in surprise for a moment. The man frowned then, and when Vergil opened the mouth surely to reproach his tardiness, Nero shut him up with a deep, needy kiss that provoked a grunt in the back of his father’s throat.

“You’re late,” Vergil still managed to comment against his lips, separating next from him in order to close the door while Nero dropped his backpack and weapons on the floor.

“I know.” Nero accepted Vergil’s new hard kiss while rolling back his shoulders to remove his coat. “But if you wanna get angry at me,” Nero changed their positions to walk Vergil towards the office’s sofa, pushing him so that the man was sitting, “you’ll have to do it later.”

Whatever thing Vergil was going to say died in his throat when Nero started unzipping his jeans with urgency. His bastard of a father didn’t make any attempt to help Nero remove his lower clothes. Vergil merely kept sitting, enjoying the show of Nero stripping his lower garments under his intense gaze, darkened with want.

Nero cursed, annoyed at Vergil’s smugness, but preferred not to risk insulting the man and causing him to slow things down just for the purpose of teasing him. He was too damn aroused for that.

When his trousers, boxers and boots had been discarded on the floor, he straddled Vergil’s lap to resume their fierce making out.

His fingers almost broke the zip of his father’s trousers to liberate his father’s also hard erection, the desperation of the gesture causing Vergil to chuckle with pleased amusement.

“Must I assume you do not wish to use a condom this time, my son—?”

It was Nero’s turn to smirk with satisfaction when Vergil’s sentence ended in a ragged groan after he rapidly positioned over his father’s cock to take it in, dropping down until his father was buried inside him. He had to suppress the urge of groaning low in relief at the fullness invading him, preferring to mimic the arrogant tone that Vergil had used before.

“Sorry, father, you were saying?”

Nero suffered a powerful shiver when Vergil’s eyes shined at his provoking tone, the man’s fingers digging in his hips with intent.

Needless to say, those were the last coherent words that escaped his mouth in the following minutes.

* * *

Dante was whistling when abandoning the house of the last client that Vergil had sent him to piss off while he finished some matters related to paperwork. At the end, his brother had decided to keep for himself that weapon that he had recovered from a demons’ den in the sewers, already two weeks ago. He shook his head with a small smile, remembering the debate his brother had held with himself, talking aloud about the advantages of keeping or not the dagger even if the fate of the weapon had been clear from the start.

Once he was on the street again, Dante yawned and stretched his arms over his head. For sure Vergil wasn’t holding back in using him as an errant boy, or man, as Vergil had pointed out by saying he wasn’t so young anymore. However, he had to admit that Vergil’s method of doing jobs nonstop was tiresome but efficient. He had earned in two weeks more than he used to earn in a month when working alone, and although most of the days Dante was already asleep before his head even touched the pillow, the feeling of all those bills in his pocket was an unfamiliar but nice weight he wouldn’t mind getting used to.

He exhaled a sigh while his steps automatically took him back to the Devil May Cry office. He knew that those days he was spending with Vergil on their own, hunting demons, arguing about almost everything, or simply being in each other's company while reading things of opposite literary quality, had a finalization date. The fact that Vergil had expressed his care for him didn’t mean that what they had now was gonna last, and he would be an even bigger fool in case of getting used to his current situation.

Having Vergil back should have been enough. The knowledge that he could go and defy the man to a fight whenever he wanted should have been enough. Those were luxuries that, half-a-year ago, he had thought he could never have again, and he should be satisfied with just that, without asking for more. That was the clever thing to do. That was what someone clever would do. It was a pity that, among all his numerous qualities, intelligence wasn’t in the list, and he had fallen into the worst kind of trap: routine.

Routine was dangerous. It made you lower your guard, and believe that an arrangement that was supposed to be temporary could last forever. People liked to say that karma was a bitch, but in that case, routine was the damn queen of bitches. It was just a temporary lover who you better not to hold onto, since it was fated to disappear when you least expected it.

And, at that moment, it was the culprit of the slap of reality that Dante suffered, when he opened the door and was welcomed with the sight of Nero eagerly riding Vergil’s cock on the office’s sofa.

His reflexes were something Dante was very proud of. He had lost count of how many times he had boasted with the ladies of easily avoiding a wound that promised to be mortal.

Well. That night, while staring at his brother and nephew groaning and moving in unison while losing themselves into each other’s bodies, he realized that his reflexes weren’t enough to avoid certain blows.

Dante knew that he should close the door before Nero and Vergil noticed his presence, but somehow his body wasn’t responding. His hand was immovable on the door’s knob, grabbing it with increasing force while his eyes refused to look at anything that wasn’t Vergil’s expression.

It was funny. He had received some nasty injuries in his life, and most of them had been caused by Vergil. So, he guessed it had perfect sense that his brother was, once again, the author of the stinging pressure that curled around his chest, while seeing Vergil’s mesmerized, almost raptured gaze fixed on Nero, as if the kid was the only thing that mattered.

The reasonable part of Dante knew that Nero had no blame, and that among all the Sparda, his nephew was the last person deserving any kind of harm. His primal part though, the one more related to his demonic half and who he rarely listened to unless the situation required it, was making him feel the unforgivable impulse of attacking Nero right then and there, in order to separate him from Vergil, _his_ twin, _his_ other half.

“What the fuck—!”

Dante had been so busy trying to keep his murderous instincts under control that he didn’t realize that Vergil had forced Nero to turn his face towards the door in order to suck at his neck, allowing them to finally notice his presence.

“What the fuck, Dante, don’t you know how to knock?!” Nero snapped in mortification while hurriedly leaving Vergil’s lap for the sake of recovering his lower clothes.

Well, at least his wish of Nero separating from Vergil had been fulfilled, he managed to think in self-mock before his heart started to beat faster when feeling Vergil’s eyes dug on him. Maybe his brother had noticed his intentions towards his beloved son?

“You’ve finished quite quickly with the last client, Dante. Did you have any trouble in making him listen to reason?”

‘ _Nope, he hasn’t_ ’, Dante rectified when Vergil talked in a conversational tone, tucking his softened cock inside his underwear as if it was a normal thing to do while a flushed Nero was still cursing while redressing himself.

“Nah, as you said the guy stopped complaining the moment I mentioned some of his colleagues dying under unknown circumstances.” He turned to look at Nero, and suppressed the urge of gritting his teeth when noticing the multiple marks Vergil had left on the kid’s neck. Damn, he had to get out of there _asap_. For the first time, he doubted to be able to keep with his carefree facade for much longer. “Sorry for the cockblock, kid. I guess your old man and you will want to keep catching up, so I’ll excuse myself tonight.”

He was about to leave that place to go somewhere else, _anywhere_ , when Nero’s annoyed expression turned into a confused one.

“Wait, what do you mean by excusing yourself?” Nero looked at Vergil in disbelief. “Is Dante staying with us now?”

Vergil looked at Nero with his brows furrowed.

“Yes. I believed I had informed you about it?”

“Eeh, no? You didn’t.”

“Nero, I remember having told you that Dante was still in Red Grave working in this branch.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t mention anything about him staying in the office!”

Vergil blinked, slowly.

“I believed it was obvious.”

Nero exhaled an exasperated sigh before turning to look at Dante with a sincere apologetic expression.

“Sorry, Dante, I shouldn’t have shouted at you then. If my stupid father had told me you were staying here now, I wouldn’t have—I mean, we would have done this in our bedroom, not here.”

If Dante thought that the uncomfortable feeling in his chest couldn’t get worse, hearing Nero refer to himself and his father as an item proved how wrong he was. It added some extra difficulty to sounding normal to talk next.

“It’s okay, kid.” ‘ _Ha ha, good joke_ ’. “I think it’s time to try a taste of the old town nightlife anyway. It’s been a bunch since the last time I got my hair loose.”

Vergil clicked his tongue in disapproval.

“Aren’t you a little too old for that?”

‘ _Says the man who’s fucking his son_ ,’ it was in the tip of Dante’s tone to reply, but he would be unable to say that without frustration, so he preferred to simply laugh it off.

“Nah. I may look old, but my spirit is still young.” He winked at Vergil and Nero. “Have fun, guys. Don’t wait up for me.”

Dante kept his teasing smile in place until the door was closed, moment in which he gulped thickly before rapidly abandoning the area, afraid that Nero and Vergil resumed what they were doing and he accidentally eavesdropped on something that he’d regret.

The problem with having an accelerated healing capacity was that he needed almost twice the quantity of alcohol than a normal grown-up man to get drunk. Lucky him, the money that he had got from the clients that he had visited that morning more than covered his necessities to get wasted, so by when he abandoned the second bar, his capability of staying balanced while walking had been considerably reduced.

He was on his way to his third bar when, out of nowhere, a phone booth appeared in front of him, giving him a scare and making him fall on his ass. Dante insulted the booth from the ground, and was about to stand up to punch it for making him fall when, despite the dizziness invading him, his brain was stupid enough to make him remember all those missing calls that he had got from Vergil.

Dante cursed. Not even while drunk he was able to keep his thoughts away from Vergil.

It was fucking unfair.

Without stopping cursing, he stood up with difficulty and dragged himself to the booth. Suddenly, calling Trish felt like the best idea ever, and that was what he did. His memory was shittier in that state, but somehow his fingers managed to press the correct numbers on their own.

He groaned in frustration when he only received the recorded message of the answering machine, but instead of hanging up, he decided to vent nevertheless.

“Hey, Trish, ‘ts me,” Dante managed to say in a slurred tone before a goofy laugh escaped him. “Ya know what bush...busy... _bushiness_ would be fucking cool to make?” Dante made a theatrical pause before dropping the bomb. “A drink to get demons wasted! And yeah, yeah, I know you’re gonna think ‘ts something stupid but I think we could get rich with this you know? ‘Cause I’ve wasted like…” Dante frowned and made estimations with his fingers before shaking his head. “Like a bunch of money in drinks to forget ‘bout Verg and ‘ts not working. And yeah yeah, I remember that shit you said of me never stopping loving my asshole twin and blablablah, but why can’t I forget him for just a damn second? ‘ts fucking unfair, you know? Let me tell you: being half-demon _sucks_. It sucks _a lot._ And I mean, you’ve got it even worse ‘cause you’re a full demon and all that but hey, at least you ain’t have to worry ‘bout loving someone that gives a shit ‘bout ya, ya know—?”

At that moment a beep sound announced that the message had to stop right there because it would be too long otherwise. Dante groaned again, angry for having been interrupted. He was about to call Trish again to leave another message when suddenly someone patted his shoulder brusquely from behind.

“Hey, old man. That coat isn't too fancy for ya?”

Dante turned around sluggishly, and when eyeing at the poor three punks that were trying to rob him, he decided that, since alcohol had failed to distract him, maybe a good beaten up could work instead.

The good news was that the ensuing fight helped Dante release some of his pent-up frustration, even instead of a proper fight, it was more like a one-sided beating up that ended with the three robbers sobbing and running down the street in fear; the bad news was that the exercise had made him sober up almost completely.

Dante cursed his demon biology once again, frustrated that all his efforts to get drunk had ended in nothing. He exhaled a deep sigh. Well then: if alcohol and fights weren’t enough to knock him down good for the night, there was just one thing left for him to try.

The strip club that had almost become Dante’s second residence fifteen years ago, and that reminded him so much of the one sited a couple of streets away to the Residential Area, kept miraculously standing. The interior had barely changed in all that time, and he’d swear that the tall woman standing behind the bar counter was the same as the one who he used to deal with.

Not that the woman was gonna admit to recognize him though. The people that went there asking for certain services were the kind of not wanting to give their real names, and unless the client said otherwise, acting as if it was the first time that someone stepped on the place was the main policy of the business.

“Yes, sir, what would you like to drink?” the bartender asked with a polite smile.

Dante extracted some bills from the inner pocket of his coat and left them on the table after shaking it lightly.

“I wanna book one of the rooms upstairs.”

The woman’s expression didn’t change while adapting the next question to Dante’s necessity.

“Of course, sir? How many hours?”

“The whole night.”

“Very well. Which kind of girl are you interested in picking?”

“One that can suck my very soul.”

Dante didn’t recall having returned there since his times as Tony Redgrave, but for the way the woman’s expression evolved into a knowing one, it seemed that the code to ask for that particular service hadn’t changed.

“I presume that you are aware of the risks of demanding this kind of company.”

“I am.” Dante added some extra bills and leaned forward to whisper the next sentence in the woman’s ear. “Also, one ‘lady’ won't be enough for me tonight, so send me your top three. The hungrier, the better.”

The woman behind the counter arched a skeptic eyebrow, clearly thinking that Dante was being a reckless idiot. However, Dante only needed to emanate a little of his demonic aura so that the woman’s eyes opened wide before a smile of understanding appeared in her face.

She then counted the money, gave him an approving nod, and asked him to wait there for a moment. Five minutes later, the woman came back with a key that handed to him and guided him towards the stairs almost hidden in the back of the club.

Dante had barely opened the door, managing to take peek of the three gorgeous succubi dressed in thin lingerie that were waiting for him inside, when the three of them approached him in a rush, eager to be fed with the energy of a powerful half-demon, a treat that they didn't often enjoy.

He let himself be led inside by those feminine hands that started stripping him down with urgency but coordinated efficacy. He ended up lying against the sheets, with one succubus bouncing on his cock, and the other two kissing him and moaning alternatively against his mouth and digging her sharp nails in his pectorals, while he used his hands to pleasure them both at the same time. He let them kiss, suck, and bite at their will, and did the same in return, getting lost in the pleasure that those creatures were expert at providing.

And at least for that night, between orgasm and orgasm, Dante was able to give his heart a break from longing for a brother that, he knew, could never be his.

* * *

Vergil frowned in his sleep when a distant ringing reached his ears.

For a moment he believed that he was dreaming, but at that moment he heard Nero grunting in annoyance next to him and realized that the sound coming from the main floor was real.

“Who the fuck is calling at this hour?” Nero snapped with exasperation when the ringing continued, unstoppable.

“Well, given that your circle of friends is bigger than mine, perhaps you should take care of it,” Vergil commented in a still half-sleepy tone that left clear he wasn’t planning to abandon the comfortability of the bed. Claiming Nero in his triggered form while he maintained his human one always required some extra energy out of him, so he did not plan to move unless it was strictly necessary.

Nero exhaled a sigh and kicked the sheets aside, standing up naked on the floor.

“If it’s Nico, I’m gonna kill her for real.”

Vergil remained with his eyes closed while Nero took care of the fool who had decided that calling at that insane hour was a good idea. Some minutes passed until he felt Nero’s presence in the room again.

“Was it the craftswoman?”

Vergil was almost asleep by then, so he didn’t notice anything weird in the long pause that preceded Nero’s answer.

“No. Wrong number.”

Of the two Sparda occupying that bed that night, only one managed to get a peaceful sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, did I already say that Dante is a total disaster? Although I guess that's part of his charm ^^U xDD


	6. Exposed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm happy that the 'call incident' was well received :DD I also hope that you like what happens here as a result :P

The call had been redirected to the voicemail by when Nero reached the main floor of the office. He was more than ready to snap at Nico that any discovery that she had made could wait until the next morning when a heavily intoxicated Dante started blurting out nonsense to the wrong person.

He sighed with resignation, hoping that Dante was lucid enough to understand that he wasn’t Trish. The last thing he wanted was that the man started phone sexing him or some weird stuff like that. He had his hand a scarce centimeter over the phone handset when something Dante said made him stop before grabbing it.

“ _‘Cause I’ve wasted like…Like a bunch of money in drinks to forget ‘bout Verg and ‘ts not working_.”

Nero frowned with confusion, wondering what Dante meant with that when it had been him the one who had reached Vergil after all those months.

He didn’t have to wait much to find the answer.

“... _And yeah, yeah, I remember that shit you said of me never stopping loving my asshole twin and blablablah, but why can’t I forget him for just a damn second?_ ”

An answer that made Nero freeze in shock.

During the seconds that followed that confession that he was not supposed to hear, Nero tried to self-convince himself that he had understood something wrong, and that Dante wasn’t meaning what he thought he was meaning. But when the conversation dragged on, and when Dante emphasized once again in a frustrated tone that he was suffering from an unrequited-love situation, Nero realized that there was no other way to interpret what he had just listened to:

Dante was in love with Vergil.

Nero dropped back on the chair. A dumbfounded expression appeared in his face while his heart started to race.

Okay.

Okay, he had to calm down.

The sensation that was spreading through his body was too similar to when he discovered that V was part of Vergil, and that besides the man was his father, and that was not a good signal. When that happened, he had been about to suffer an anxiety attack, but unlike back then, he wasn’t alone anymore, and the last thing he wanted was that Vergil realized what was going on.

Speaking of whom, shit, could have Vergil heard the message? The man’s hearing was very sharp, so the option of his father having been able to listen to Dante’s rambling from the bedroom wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

On impulse, Nero snapped a hand against the answering machine to delete the message.

Of course, deleting the evidence would be useless if his father had heard it, and in that case, Vergil wouldn’t be pleased with him for trying to hide such big news from him. For someone who was such a secretive jerk, Vergil had reacted badly in the few occasions that Nero had tried to leave him in the dark about something.

 _But_ if Vergil hadn’t heard it, it would gain Nero some time to wrap his mind about that unexpected revelation, and also figure out what the hell to do with it.

After exhaling a deep breath, Nero climbed up the stairs again. He was getting more and more nervous with each step he took towards their bedroom, and by when he stopped in the frame, he could hear his rhythmic, rapid heartbeat in his ears.

A couple of hours ago he was still in that bed, arching and digging his demon claws on Vergil’s forearms, his legs wrapped around Vergil’s frame while the man drove himself inside and out of him without restraint, as every time that one of them returned from a particular stressful or long job.

Sex with Vergil was always good, but if Nero was forced to choose a moment to keep, it would be what happened immediately after, when they were enjoying the post-coital relaxation and Vergil showed unconscious signs of open affection that Nero would _never_ point out, not wanting to risk that the man stubbornly refused to show them again.

Now, it didn’t remain _anything_ of that previous calm. He was tense while observing Vergil’s immobile figure in the bed, and he had to make a great effort not to gulp when hearing the light rustling of the bedsheets, indicating that Vergil had moved a little to speak.

“Was it the craftswoman?”

Nero had to push back a relieved sigh when Vergil talked in a half-asleep voice that couldn’t be faked.

“No,” he said, taking some seconds to make sure that he was going to sound normal enough. “Wrong number.”

Vergil’s only answer was a sleepy hum. Nero entered the bed, and after checking that Vergil’s breathing was calm and even, he lay on his back with his right hand behind his head.

He allowed himself to let out the relieved sigh he had been forced to suppress before, since it didn’t look as if Vergil had heard Dante’s message. However, as more and more thoughts started to invade his mind, Nero realized that maybe it would have been easier for him that Vergil knew.

Because shit, what was he supposed to do with that info? Should he pretend he hadn’t heard anything? That seemed to be the most logical solution. And well, of course he could tell Vergil but shit, he wasn’t a snitch, and it was evident that Dante hadn’t planned that he, and much less Vergil, learned about his feelings, and that he had done it by accident.

Thinking about the call made Nero mutter a curse under his breath while turning towards his right, giving his back to Vergil. Damn, Dante was such an idiot. Why did he have to get drunk and spill the beans? He didn’t know since when Dante had been feeling that way, but if he hadn’t said anything until then, couldn’t he take the damn secret to his grave?

He regretted that last thought the moment it assaulted him, realizing that it wasn’t fair. He had never been in an unrequited-love situation, but he knew how damn difficult it was to control certain feelings. _That_ , he had experienced it first-hand. He had been with Kyrie for years. Less than a year ago, his future with her had been guaranteed. And then V appeared, and he was unable not to fall for him, destroying everything that he and Kyrie had been building.

Nero felt a disgusting pressure curling around his chest when that same situation re-played in his head, but in another scenario and with different actors. He rapidly pushed those thoughts aside, deciding it was stupid to fear an hypothetical situation when there was a real one more urgent to solve.

From a selfish point of view, the choice that benefited him the most was obvious. ‘Forgetting’ about that call was the easiest path. It would allow him to keep with his life normally, without worrying about an issue that had no fucking solution, at least from his part.

The problem was that picking the easy way had never been his thing.

Denying what he knew wasn’t gonna make it go away, and as stupid as it probably was, keeping going while pretending that nothing had changed while knowing the ‘hidden’ feelings that Dante was harboring, felt off to him.

He could be hating Dante a lot right now, and want to kick his ass for having complicated things as usual, but the man had done more for him than they had ever spoken aloud, and therefore, the correct thing was to try to find a solution that didn’t work _just_ for him. He owed his uncle that.

That night he barely slept. He spent most part of the time thinking first about how to approach the situation, and then about how to carry it out with success. What he knew for sure was that, for the time being, Vergil had to be left out of everything. The mere thought of hiding such big news from his father was enough to keep Nero awake for what remained of the night, so when the first rays of sun started to slip in the room, Nero decided that the soonest he left everything arranged, the better.

Nero slid out of the bed all the carefully he could. Damn, he was so tired. The next time someone told him that he didn’t think things through before acting, he would have a few words with them, and not of the good kind.

When he managed to dress himself without Vergil giving any signs of being awake, he thought that maybe he would be able to leave and come back without his father noticing.

“You waking up earlier than noon on a Saturday? That’s what I call unexpected.”

‘ _But of course, that would be too easy_ ’, Nero thought with resignation while turning around. He looked at Vergil while this one leaned on his right forearm. Thanks to the absence of clothes in Vergil’s upper half, Nero could see that some of the marks his teeth had left the previous night hadn’t faded yet. The one placed just above Vergil’s collarbone was very vivid, and it made Nero suffer an ego boost when remembering the desperate grunts of pleasure that his father had let out as he marked him while pounding inside him against the creaking bed…

...and if there was a bad timing to get pumped up with just his thoughts it was right then, so Nero forced himself to stop daydreaming to focus on Vergil’s expression instead, which showed a mix of curiosity and suspicion.

It was okay though. He had foreseen that Vergil would find weird his early wake-up and had the perfect excuse to justify it.

“Christmas is in less than two weeks, so I was planning to go find some presents for the kids.”

Vergil’s reaction didn’t disappoint him. The man clicked his tongue in disapproval, and for the first time Nero was _really_ glad that Vergil disliked Kyrie and, by extension, all the people related to her. That way, it would be guaranteed that he wouldn't ask him for further details of where he planned to go.

“I guess it goes without saying that you’ll waste the money of _your_ earnings to buy _that_.”

Nero nodded at Vergil’s threatening tone and took his leave, not without assuring the man to be back in time for lunch because god forbid that Vergil learned how to cook a decent meal.

It was ‘a luck’ that Red Grave was still trying to recover from the economic blow that the incident with the Qliphoth had provoked, forcing its local shops to be open sooner than usual. Otherwise, he would have needed to find another excuse to leave the office at that hour, which would be problematic because Nero’s imagination to come up with credible lies was pretty limited.

The probabilities of Vergil suspecting something about his lie were scarce, but just in case Vergil was observing him through the window, he walked first towards the shopping district area, even if his destination was in the opposite direction. He waited until being far away enough from Devil May Cry before redirecting his steps to his actual goal: the nightlife district.

It didn’t take him much to arrive, but finding Dante’s trace, that was another story. Fortunately, the month that he spent learning about Vergil, while the twins were finishing things off in the Underworld, had helped him learn about the procedure to track people.

Still, he had to visit several bars until finding a solid lead. At least, there weren’t many people who matched Dante’s description. The man was rather recognizable, so when the barman of the last place he visited commented that some customers had witnessed how ‘a man with white hair had beat the crap out some punks’, Nero knew that he was in the good track.

The trace seemed to be lost there, and after almost an hour of hitting the area without finding anything useful, Nero decided to go to the roofs to devil-trigger, since his instincts to detect the presence of demons were potentiated in that form. After taking a mental note of some apparently calm places where demons seemed to be prowling, surely underground, a presence that was more powerful than the others caught his attention.

Nero changed back into his human form and stopped crouching on the roof to return to ground level. The doubts that he could still have about being in the correct place vanished when finding himself in front of a strip club.

He ignored the ‘closed’ sign hanging in the door and entered. The woman behind the bar counter turned around to throw a reproachful look that soon evolved into one of interest, once she gave him a scan from head to toe.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart, we’re closed now, but I can give you a discount for tonight. I’m sure that some girls wouldn’t mind attending you for free.”

Nero’s eyes diverted towards a group of the mentioned girls, who were having a late breakfast in one of the tables after their night work, and who were looking at him with unsettling smiles that looked too hungry to be human.

“Thanks,” he said at the end, feeling quite proud of himself because the last time he had dealt with succubi, he had been considerably more nervous, “but I’m just here to talk to someone.”

As he was fearing, the woman of the bar, who seemed to also be the owner, wasn’t going to allow him to see one of his customers for free, so after a lot of ‘convincing’ - meaning money - the woman allowed him to go upstairs to talk to Dante. Nero hoped that his investigation hadn’t failed him, or otherwise he would have wasted almost all the money he got from the last job to visit a random stranger.

He knocked at the old door, but when a few seconds passed and no one answered, he slipped inside. His eyes were drawn to the bed, where someone was completely covered by the sheets, sleeping soundly by basing on the snores he was emitting.

“Dante?”

Nero only got a louder snore as an answer. He tried a couple of more times, each call louder than the previous, but the man didn’t react to it.

He clicked his tongue in a Vergil-like way and scratched the back of his head. The problem was that from that position he couldn’t see who the tenant of the room was, and he hadn’t paid enough attention to Dante’s attire to know if the clothes scattered across the floor were his. The only thing he could have recognized would be the man’s red coat, and it didn’t seem to be anywhere.

So, since he preferred not to approach the bed until being sure of who was sleeping on it, he mimicked what Credo used to do when he was a teenager and had problems waking up: to open the door of the room again, and slam it closed with all the force he could gather.

The brusque noise finally made the person on the bed sit up straight on the bed, and Nero could verify that the half-naked man dressed only with that red coat and pointing a familiar gun at him was no other than Dante.

“Hey, hey, hey, it’s me, old man,” Nero hurriedly said while putting his hands in front of him, not because he was afraid of being shot at, but because he didn’t want Dante to break something in the room and he was forced to pay even more money. “It's me. Nero.”

Dante blinked, then frowned and finally exhaled a long breath before dropping back on the bed.

“Jesus, kid, I almost shot you,” Dante said while rubbing his eyes with his free hand, talking in a voice that sounded raspier than his usual one. “Don’t you know how to knock or what?”

Nero gulped. He didn’t know if Dante had picked the same words that he used the previous night on purpose, but he then remembered the shocked face that Dante had displayed when interrupting him and Vergil. Damn, the situation had been awkward as hell, but now, knowing how Dante felt towards his brother, it was even worse.

“I knocked,” Nero answered, lowering his hands to hook them inside the pockets of his coat. “And I also called for you, but you didn’t answer.”

Dante hummed, then removed his fingers from his eyes and rested his gun - that Nero didn’t know where the hell he had taken it from, maybe from under the pillow? - on the nightstand.

“It was a rough night.” Dante made a small grimace while sitting up again. “So sorry If I’m not my usual super loquacious self.”

Nero observed Dante as this one removed the sheets from his body to sit on the side of the bed. The man planted his feet on the carpeted floor while removing his coat, and although Nero was curious to know why the hell the man had slept with it, the roll-back movement of Dante’s shoulders made Nero forget about the question while his eyes roamed through the man’s naked body. For someone who ate pizza as a common basis, Dante was surely fit. And hairy. And yeah, that had nothing to do with eating pizza, but Nero couldn’t help to notice it too, since body hair was something that neither V nor Vergil had.

“I know they look bad, but it’s okay. They will heal soon.”

Dante was referring to the multiple bite marks and claw scars, some of them deep enough to break skin, that adorned the man’s broad back, arms and the sides of his neck.

“What the hell happened to you?”

The older devil hunter laughed and placed a hand from his nape to start rubbing it, while offering Nero an amused glance.

“Nothing that I didn’t want.” Dante stood up while exhaling a small huff, and Nero had to make an effort not to check on his uncle’s equipment while the man went around recovering his clothes. He couldn’t lie: he was curious to check if the twins were also similar in that aspect, but it was _not_ appropriate, and much less considering their current situation. “But I think I’m getting too old to handle three demon ladies.”

Nero frowned while Dante, fortunately dressed already in his underwear, exhaled a triumphant ‘ _Aha!_ ’ when finding his pants, that had somehow ended under the bed.

“Three?” His eyes opened wide then. “You slept with _three_ succubi?”

Dante smirked proudly while finishing pulling up his pants.

“Yeah, I did.” He started buckling his pants and barked a laugh when noticing Nero’s stunned expression. “And believe me, that’s nothing compared to what I could do when I was your age, but those were other times. I guess my energy ain’t what it used to be. Damn, I _hate_ getting old.”

Nero snorted and approached the only chair in the room to sit on it.

“I don’t get the fun in sleeping with someone who can consume you if you lower your guard.”

Dante chuckled again while crouching to recover his wrinkled t-shirt.

“Yeah, Verg told me that you had a bad experience with these ladies.”

Nero tensed a little at the mention of Vergil, which reminded him why he was there.

“Did he?” he asked just to gain time, feeling nervousness spreading. Shit, now that he was there, maybe his plan wasn’t such a good idea.

“Yep.” Nero made the most of Dante being focused in turning his t-shirt outside in to gulp subtly. “For someone who talks so little about himself, for sure he does it a lot about you.”

Nero didn’t know if it was because he was aware of Dante’s feelings, or if the man was still recovering from the excesses of the previous night and his capacity of pretending was worse than usual, but he perfectly noticed the annoyance tinging the last words, and also the tension that accompanied them.

“So, you haven’t told me yet what brings you here, kid.” Dante finished rolling the t-shirt down his body and crossed his arms to fix his eyes on him. “I hope you weren’t planning to cheat on Verg, because you’ll have to empty your pockets to keep my mouth shut.”

Dante’s tone may have sounded nonchalant, but his eyes were inquisitive, and his body wasn’t as relaxed as his mocking words wanted to pretend. It was obvious that Dante hadn’t expected his presence there, and that he wasn’t too happy about it.

Nero gritted his teeth. Before, he had some doubts about how to approach the situation, not being entirely convinced about what to do. But at that moment, when feeling a wariness coming from Dante that bordered rejection, he decided that he wasn’t gonna lose anything by leaving things clear between them right there and then.

* * *

“I know you’re in love with my father.”

On his defense, Dante wasn’t at his best when Nero dropped that bomb in a conversational tone. He had just woken up feeling extremely drained, and the first thing that he had seen was Nero. _That_ had made him recall the last time he saw the kid, which made him behave towards Nero with an increasing frustration that he hadn’t been able to mask as much as he wanted. 

Therefore, his reaction when hearing the last words that he had expected to hear that morning, or ever, wasn’t the one he would have had in case of being in top condition.

“How do you—?” Crap, bad start. VERY bad start. “ _What?_ ” That was better, but he doubted it was enough.

He didn’t have time to think about his options, since Nero immediately kept talking, using a calm, serious tone that he wasn’t used to hearing from the hotheaded boy, as if the young devil hunter suspected that he was about to freak out, something that Dante was about to do by the way.

“You called the office last night. You were really drunk and mistook Trish’s number with ours. And well, you kind of confessed.”

Dante stared at Nero for some long seconds while the blurry memories of him talking to Trish slowly came to him. A cold sweat invaded him then, and although he spent some extra seconds trying to furiously think how to justify that call, he gave up, realizing that the harm was done already, and that there was nothing he could do or say to solve it.

He plopped himself in the bed, as if what remained of his energy had been stolen for him. A laugh close to sound hysterical escaped him while he leaned his elbows on his knees.

“Fuck,” he muttered, resting his forehead on his hands. “ _Fuck_.”

Nero didn’t say anything, but Dante could feel the kid’s eyes on him, even if no impatience could be sensed coming from him.

Dante devoted the next half-minute pause that followed by insulting himself non-stop internally, while thinking how damn much he had screwed everything up. Once he had run short of appellatives, he took a deep breath.

“I guess you won't believe me if I say that I was talking about _another_ Vergil.”

Nero snorted softly at his defeated comment, leaning back against the chair with his arms crossed.

"Another Vergil who is also your twin?"

"Shit, did I say it was my twin?"

"Yes, you did."

"Damn, then goodbye to the excuse."

“Yep, what a pity: it was such a good one.”

Dante chuckled weakly and raised his face to look at Nero with a lopsided smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

“I know, right?” At least the boy was taking it better than he expected. In all the scenarios that he had imagined, Nero ended up shooting him, stabbing him or using those cool spectral wings to beat the crap out of him. He guessed that he was more merciful than Vergil in that aspect, and also more mature.

“Can I ask you something?” Nero said then. “Since when?”

Dante sighed and changed position, leaning his calf on the opposite knee and resting both hands on the crossed leg.

“For some time now.”

“That means weeks, months…?” Some irony must have accidentally sneaked in Dante’s eyes because Nero gulped. “So, years.”

Dante was tempted to raise the number and go for ‘decades’, just to see the face Nero would make, but at the end he decided to leave it at that. He was pathetic enough already and didn’t want to be it even more by admitting aloud to have spent almost half of his life loving his brother without being able to do anything about it.

“Shit.” Nero looked quite shocked, as if he hadn’t expected that Dante’s feelings went back so far. “And that’s why you disappeared?”

Dante opened his eyes more, surprised that Nero had connected the dots, a new proof that he underestimated the kid more than he should.

“Yeah.” Given the circumstances, there was no point in continuing keeping that information to himself anyway. “Vergil told you anything about that mission?”

Nero shook his head no.

“Not much. Just that the Baphomet that you went to kill was more powerful than a normal one.”

Dante chuckled, shaking his head a little.

“Yeah, the client wasn’t very specific in the job, so what it was supposed to be a lesser demon was nothing as such.” Dante sighed. “Long story short, Vergil and I underestimated him. We competed to see which one of us could reach the demon first, and I won; or that’s what I thought. That asshole had some powerful mind attacks under his sleeve besides the usual ice tricks those creatures do, so before I realized, I was paralyzed and at his mercy, with that rude beast digging in my mind without permission.”

Nero’s eyes opened more, as if he was somehow deducing what was coming next.

“Before I knew it, the damn room was covered with images of my memories.” Dante clenched his jaw for a moment when remembering how damn impotent he had felt, and also angry for having been driven into a corner by an enemy that he could have defeated in case of not having lowered his guard. “The bastard was bringing up all the things I regretted, feared or hoped, all mixed up like a shitty drink, and well, it turns out that your old man appeared in most of them. Now I know that I was the only one seeing all that stuff because of the spell, but when Verg entered the room at that moment…”

Dante had to pause to avert his eyes and exhale a nervous laugh, perfectly remembering the panic that invaded him when seeing his brother there.

“I almost shit myself. He then sliced the demon, and didn’t mention a thing, but during our way back I couldn’t stop thinking that in case Vergil had taken longer to come to me, that demon could have used another damn spell that had ended exposing me, or even forced me to do something. It was a close call, so I left.” Dante let out a resigned laugh. “I thought that putting some distance would help. That being on my own, like, _completely_ on my own, would help to kick Vergil out of my mind, you know? But I underestimated your old man. He’s more of a nuisance than I thought he was and well, here I am.”

A new silence settled down then, this time broken by Nero.

“And have you never thought about telling him?”

Dante offered Nero an amused glance.

“Yeah, once. And you were about to witness it.”

Nero’s eyes opened more in understanding, before snorting.

“I _knew_ that I felt something between V and you at that moment.”

“Well, technically, there was just some one-sided attraction in the air when you arrived, but honestly, I don’t regret not having told him then.” Dante pointed his chin at Nero. “I mean, he has you. And okay, watching you playing cowboy with your old man wasn’t the best show ever.”

“H-Hey, I already told you that in case of knowing you were staying, I’d never—”

“But I know that Vergil is with the right person.”

Nero’s eyes opened wide at that, as if he wasn’t expecting those words. To be honest, Dante was surprised too, not just for having said them, but also for how comfortable he felt talking to Nero, even if the situation surrounding them had all the reasons not to be.

“I’ve lost Vergil twice already; and both times, it was my fault.” Dante talked with a definite tone that proved it was something he had come to accept, something he had learned to live with. “I ruined all the chances I had to make things right with him; but you, Nero, you wasted none.” Dante adopted a tone that was half-joking, half-serious. “So yeah, sometimes I wouldn’t mind that Vergil was with someone worse, a.k.a. me. But the truth is that he is with whom he has to be.”

Dante palmed his leg with both hands and stood up, without noticing Nero gulping thickly while continuing looking at him.

“And now, I think I should leave before these ladies decide to make me pay more for the extra hours.” Dante went to recover his boots - each one of them had ended in opposite sides of the room, he didn’t know how - while continuing talking. “Also, I kind of wasted all the money I have, so do you think you can try to convince Vergil to lend me some for the motel? I’m sure he’ll kill me if I’m the one asking him—”

“You’re not going anywhere.”

Dante stopped when he was in the process of crouching to recover his second boot.

“Sorry, what?”

He was startled by the brusqueness Nero displayed when standing up from the chair.

“You’ve heard me.” Nero’s tone was so firm that it was close to sounding like a snarl. “Devil May Cry was yours to begin with, so like hell if you’re gonna pay to stay somewhere else.”

Dante blinked, more confused than ever.

“Wait, so you’ve not come to see me to kick me out the office?”

Nero’s eyes snapped wide before an offended expression appeared in his face.

“What?! Of course not! What an asshole do you think I am?!”

“O-kay, okay, easy there, kid.” When realizing that a blue aura was forming around Nero, Dante started raising his hands in a conciliatory way, dropping then the boot when realizing that the gesture would lose its effect in case of continuing grabbing it. “I haven’t said anything about being an asshole, but if I were you, I would keep this pitiful guy as far as possible from your old man.”

Dante planned to smooth things over by adopting a more humorous tone, but that last ‘joke’ only seemed to make Nero angrier.

“That ‘pitiful guy’ you’re talking about covered Vergil’s back when he went to the Underworld; and offered him a place to stay when they came back; _and_ tried to convince him to get in touch with me despite his own feelings.” Nero pointed at Dante with his chin. “You may be a lot of things, Dante, but you’re _not_ pitiful. And I won’t let you call yourself that again.”

The fierceness of Nero’s words, that determined tone that promised trouble in case he dared to insult himself again, made Dante’s heart skip a beat.

Damn. He certainly couldn’t blame Vergil for having fallen hard for Nero. Seeing the kid defending him like that, from him, was a little touching. It had felt...good.

“So I’m not here to kick you out.” Nero talking again made Dante rapidly push away those last thoughts, somehow feeling they could end up being dangerous. “I just wanted to avoid that you disappeared again when realizing that you had called the wrong number, something you’d have done.”

Dante opened his mouth to deny it, but when seeing Nero’s deadpanned expression that he decided that it was wiser to accept the truth.

“Guilty as charged, I guess.”

Nero nodded, satisfied that Dante had admitted it because his next words sounded less brusque.

“And what I said about you staying in Devil May Cry, I meant it, and not just because Vergil likes you being there. Half a year ago, I discovered that I had a family, and I’d like it kept being that way.” Nero sighed and scratched the back of his head. “Obviously, you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to. I understand that you can hate me—”

“ _Hate you?_ ” Dante repeated, and the astonished laugh he exhaled caused Nero to pause to look at him with surprise. “Nero, you’re impossible to hate. And let me tell you that it would be easier if you were a jerk. Your dad is. You could have inherited that from him, so that I had an excuse to kick your ass.”

Nero chuckled, and Dante couldn’t help to think that the boy looked kinda cute when doing so. He was so used to the boy’s perpetual frown that the change was curious.

“Thanks for the compliment I guess, but still, it doesn’t have to be easy for you. And if staying in the office is tough, then we can arrange that you stay elsewhere. But, before getting to that, I’d like to try to find another solution. Together.”

Dante observed Nero in silence, still surprised that the kid was so willing to find a solution to include him in, and to stop him from leaving. It was a plot twist that he hadn’t expected. Up till then, part of him had considered Nero as his rival, even if Nero wasn’t the only obstacle that had prevented him from having Vergil for himself.

Now however, he felt like he wouldn’t mind getting to know that kid better, and even get along. And yeah, probably it wasn’t normal to feel that way for the guy fucking the man he loved, but what the hell: the Sparda family had never been normal to begin with.

“Oh, I can think about a couple of things, like soundproofing walls, or some kind of schedule to guarantee that I won’t catch you both in the middle of bonding.”

Dante smirked with amusement at Nero’s blushing. Man, the boy was surely easy to tease, huh.

“Well, soundproofing can be expensive.” Dante’s eyes were about to leave their orbits when realizing that Nero had taken him seriously. “And about the… ‘ _bonding_ ’, well, we could try to, uhm, I don’t know, establish the nights when we—”

It was Nero’s turn to look confused when Dante burst out laughing.

“H-Hey, what’s so fucking funny?” Nero protested while Dante was bent in two. “I’m trying to find a solution here!”

“Jesus, kid,” Dante made a grimace while grabbing his sides, that hurt due to the laughter. “Damn it, you are damn cute, you know?”

He meant it, but Nero seemed to think he was mocking him because clenched his jaw and invoked his spectral wings while approaching him. Dante managed to shorten the distance between them and settle his hands on the boy’s shoulders when Nero was raising a fisted claw in the air.

“I know you’re trying to help, kid. And I thank you for it.” His serious words and the sincere tinge of gratitude in them caused Nero’s angry expression to slowly vanish. “But I was only joking with those ridiculous measures. There’s no reason why you and Verg have to do things differently, so leave to me how to cope with it. Capisce?”

Nero sighed and nodded while summoning his claws back, but he didn’t look very convinced.

“I think it’s not fair, but okay for now.” Dante had just realized that Nero was feeling bad for not being able to do more when the boy kept speaking. “But you must promise you won’t disappear again without warning, because if you do that, I won’t be there to stop Vergil from killing you.”

A laugh escaped Dante when realizing that Vergil being able to find him was implicit in those words.

“Don’t worry: if your lovey-dovey relationship becomes too painful to watch, I’ll just go outside to blow some steam, like I’ve done now.”

“You mean being about to be eaten by three succubi?”

“Hey, for what is worth, those ladies left with more bite marks than I have.”

“I _really_ don’t want to know, Dante.”

“But you have a point. Probably next time I’ll only pay for two. And preferably two that aren’t too hungry, just in case.”

Nero snorted and separated from him.

“So, that means you’re coming with me?”

Dante smiled. Months ago, the more time he had spent with Vergil on his own after coming back from the Underworld, the thought of telling Vergil to get over Nero had crossed his mind more than once. At the end, he did the correct thing by encouraging Vergil not to give up on what Nero and V had, but being ‘the good guy’ was something that he had ended regretting on several occasions, especially during all those lonely nights in his room.

He knew there would be times in which jealousy and frustration would strike again, but after hearing Nero’s hopeful comment and seeing that the boy truly wanted that he kept forming part of his life and Vergil’s, Dante was convinced that he would _not_ regret that the kid was with his brother. Because Vergil may not have won the best father of year prize, but for sure he had brought to the world one of the best lads Dante had ever known.

“Yeah, kid. For now, I’m not going anywhere.”

Once again, Dante had to push the thought that Nero’s wide smile could make the straightest of the men to doubt about his sexuality.

* * *

Vergil was about to turn a page of his book when the phone of the office started to sound. He clicked his tongue, slightly irritated by the interruption, but didn’t make any attempt of standing up to pick it up. During the weekend he had a strict policy of ignoring any calls related to work, unlike Nero who insisted on ignoring such rules the moment someone begged a little for help.

He let the voicemail be activated, and was about to start reading the first paragraph of the new page when the voice of a loud child started to sound, spitting some absurdities directed obviously to Nero.

Vergil exhaled a sigh and closed the book, putting it aside before walking to the desk to attend the call.

“ _Stop_ with this loud babbling nonsense at once, child.”

Fortunately, Nero wasn’t there to see the small smirk that appeared in his face when hearing the loud shout of fear of the kid getting far and far away, indicating to him that the boy had ran away from there while leaving the phone connected.

He was about to hang up, satisfied of having achieved that those little pests didn’t call in another week, when another boy, one that sounded more calmed, started to call.

“ _Good afternoon, Mr. Vergil. Kyle speaking. Can we talk to Nero, please? It’s a little urgent.”_

Normally Vergil avoided to deal with children as much as possible, but the polite tone of the boy and the apparent lack of fear he was showing made him be curious enough not to hang up.

“He’s not here at the moment.” Those children didn’t occupy any special place in his mind, but as much as it annoyed him, they were important to Nero, and he had the feeling that his son would get angry in case of not verifying the extent of that ‘urgency’. “What do you exactly mean by ‘urgent’?”

“ _Carlo was playing in Kyrie's room and he found our Christmas presents under the bed, so we wanted to know if we can play with them already._ ”

Vergil blinked slowly while the child's words sank in.

“Well, this is curious,” he commented in a calm tone that contrasted with his tightening grip on the phone. “Worry not, boy. I will deliver the message.”

After the child thanked him and said goodbye, Vergil hung up. He came back to the sofa and ignored the book for the sake of recovering Yamato.

Once he had the sword in his hands, he sat down on the sofa with his legs crossed and leaned his elbow on the sofa arm.

“Very well, Nero,” he calmly said aloud, resting his temple on his knuckles, “I really hope you have a satisfying explanation.”

Because otherwise, perhaps his deceitful son would be unable to prevent his right arm from being ripped off again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the ones who haven't read "And Secrecy, the Human Dress", that almost-confession with V that Dante mentions happens in [chapter 13](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23247931/chapters/61773199), in case someone is interested in checking it ;)
> 
> Also, regarding the ending, no Sparda is dying in this story, don't worry xDD


	7. Selective memory

“Are you kidding me?”

“Nope.” Dante shrugged his shoulders when Nero stared at him, while they turned the corner of the street that led them back to Devil May Cry. “What? This coat is hella expensive. I didn’t wanna wake up without it.”

“And sleeping naked with it was the best way to prevent that?”

“Hey, I still have it, so it was the right choice.” Dante chuckled when Nero snorted and shook his head. “Okay, enlighten me, kid: what would you have done instead?”

“For starters, I wouldn’t wear my favorite clothing to a place where I’m sure that I can be robbed.”

“Not valid: you have to assume that you are a poor rat like me who only owns a decent coat.”

“Then I’d pay something more to the owner so that she kept it somewhere safe for the night.”

“Wow, and would you trust a stranger with something so valuable?”

“If I’m an idiot that risks _his own life_ by sleeping with strangers who can suck his soul dry, yeah, why not?”

“Hey, hey, hey, I may be an idiot, but I’m a _tough_ one.”

“So what, you say risking your life is okay but losing a damn clothing is not?” His sincere nod caused Nero to open his eyes more before exhaling a snort of disbelief. “Damn, your priorities are fucked up, you know?”

‘ _Just my priorities?_ ’ Dante was about to say mockingly, but by then Devil May Cry was on sight, so he preferred not to make any references to his ‘particular’ relationship with Vergil.

“You okay?”

Dante didn’t realize he had stopped until hearing Nero’s question coming front a meter in front of him. He looked at the kid, whose brows were furrowed not with irritation but concern. Dante was surprised when realizing that he could already tell the difference.

“Yeah.” Nero didn’t look too convinced, so he elaborated. “I was just thinking that Vergil isn’t gonna be too happy when discovering that I’ve wasted almost all my savings in fucking around, so maybe I should bring a peace offering or something.”

Nero nodded.

“Do you have something in mind?”

Dante sighed while leaning his hands on his hips, also resting his weight on his right leg.

“It would be easier if we were kids. I could gain his favor by buying him something sweet.” Dante smiled mischievously when seeing Nero’s confused face. “What, he hasn’t told you about his glorious chubby times?”

He wasn’t disappointed by Nero’s shocked expression.

“ _What_?!”

Dante barked a laugh.

“Oh ho ho, so he hasn’t!” He crossed his arms as his tone turned nostalgic. “Yeah, believe it or not, your old man became a cute meatball when we were around...five years old, I think? Our mom could be too permissive sometimes, probably as some kind of overcompensation for our strict as hell dad, and well, Verg had _way_ too many sweets and muffins that Christmas.” He barked a laugh. “God, I still remember how pissed off he looked while trying to beat me in our usual races. One of the times I had to stop so that he didn’t collapse in the middle of it. From then on, he refused to keep eating sweets, _and_ also forced me to keep having races until we were tied _again_.”

Nero chuckled while still looking surprised, as if he was having difficulties believing the story.

“And are you sure it’s a good idea to buy him that? Maybe he doesn’t want to remember that story.”

Dante hummed.

“You may be right,” he uncrossed his right arm in order to point in front of him with his index as a smile formed in his face, “ _but_ maybe after so many years your old man is craving some good greasy food, _and_ therefore he’ll forgive his super thoughtful brother for providing him with it.”

Nero hummed and crossed his arms too, signaled at him next with his chin.

“You know that he’ll try to kill you again if you’re wrong, right?”

“Yep, I know. But as I’ve said, if worse comes to worst,” Dante smirked with confidence, “this idiot is pretty tough.”

Even if Nero still looked unconvinced, he nevertheless agreed to accompany him to check the bakeries around the area. It was almost lunch time by then, so the place was almost empty when Dante finally decided to enter a shop with displayed pastries that he could afford with his remaining money.

Nero entered with him, but when seeing that it was taking him a life to decide which pastries to buy, the kid announced that he would be going ahead to the office, his necessity of taking a long nap evident with the more and more frequent yawns that escaped him.

It took Dante another couple of minutes to make his choice. The lady that attended him behind the counter couldn’t be much older than Nero, and was also a cutie, so out of habit Dante made her a compliment, expecting a roll of eyes as a result, or being blatantly ignored as usual. It was a big surprise when he was already turning around to leave while carrying the chosen pastries inside his bag and the girl asked him for his number, with the excuse of contacting him in case he was planning to order some special desserts for the upcoming festivities.

Dante returned the grin, gave the number of Devil May Cry office without any shame, and winked at her before taking his leave, self-mockingly thinking that, at least, luck was smiling at him by giving him chances of getting laid to distract himself from the person he most craved to hold _and_ be held by.

He made sure to push aside those kinds of thoughts while coming back to the office. Somehow, his conversation with Nero had made him want to stay with Vergil and the kid despite his complicated circumstances, and the first step so that things worked out was to stop drowning in self-compassion. It could be a hard task, since he had become an expert in doing so from time to time during the past years, but he would do his best to get used to the romantic situation of his brother and nephew.

And well, if at the end his fears were confirmed and he turned out to be too immature to accept that situation, then he would lose the remains of his dignity to beg Trish to let him stay at her place while his office was rebuilt. After all the woman for sure had lost the respect for him after so many years of standing his crap.

In no time, Dante was back in the office. He was raising his hand to knock at the door when he heard something impacting against a surface followed by a breathless gasp.

The first thing that came to his mind was that Nero and Vergil were at it _again_ , and that his nephew had decided to take his words of not changing their customs for his sake to the damn letter. However, his annoyance lasted until his ears caught the unmistakable noise of blades connecting, followed by another groan that, this time, he realized was of pain.

Without wasting another second, Dante slammed the door of the office opened. His eyes ended just as such when witnessing the messy state of the place. Most of the papers that once were on the table were now scattered on the floor, there were a few pieces of furniture - a couple of chairs and the coffee table, Dante noticed - cut in two as well, and one of the windows had been shattered, so now the cold breeze of winter slipped inside the place as well.

Dante was able to catch all those details in less than a second, since almost immediately his attention focused on the lying figure of Nero in the middle of the room. The kid was in the process of standing up with difficulty. His breathing was labored and there were more than a dozen wounds on his body, not too deep to be worrisome, but deep enough to hurt like a bitch.

Without thinking Dante started to approach the kid with the intention of helping him, but he was stopped by a commanding, familiar voice.

“Do _not_ interfere, brother.” Dante’s eyes shifted to the other side of the office, from where Vergil, covered with several injuries as well, had said those words while still adopting his attacking stance, that for sure he had used to send Nero flying to other side of the room. “This is between my son and me.”

Dante exhaled a resigned sigh when his twin teleported next to Nero again, who by then was more than ready to stop his attack and return it with equal ferocity. He observed them for a few seconds before starting to walk towards the miraculously intact sofa to leave his bag on it, effortlessly avoiding a stray bullet that Nero had shot and that Vergil hadn’t managed to cancel with Yamato.

“Well, as much as I hate interrupting a lovely father-and-son conversation,” by then, Dante had recovered Rebellion from the wall where it was lying, so the next time Vergil and Nero had to pull back from each other to throw another attack, he intercepted it with his sword, “I have enough of being left in the damn sidelines.”

Dante was about to curse when Vergil and Nero continued pressing their blades against his. If stopping one of Vergil or Nero’s blows required some effort, being dealing with the two Sparda at the same time was one hell of a task that caused Dante to clench his jaw while using both hands in order to better grip his sword. Knowing that he couldn’t keep those blades at bay much longer, Dante started lowering his sword, pretending to have run out of strength.

He wasn’t sure if Vergil and Nero would fall for it, but when they both made the mistake of stopping applying pressure to Rebellion with the intention of continuing attacking each other again, Dante rapidly raised his sword with all the speed he could gather to hit first Nero’s weapon and then Vergil’s, throwing them on opposite sides of the room.

He made the most of the stupor that invaded both Vergil and Nero when finding themselves unarmed to position himself between them. The glare he obtained from Vergil would have caused another man to start begging for his life to be spared, but Dante was more than used to that expression. He had seen it many times in both reality and dreams, and depending on how crazy his mood was, he could even find it arousing.

Fortunately, at the moment the priority of stopping that fight imposed over his punctual masochistic tendencies. He simply returned the look with an impassible expression and started to talk, in order to stop any snarky reproach that Vergil had prepared for him.

“Sorry, Verg, but Devil May Cry has already lost one of its offices and destroying another one would be super bad for the business.” He said with a calm but firm voice before signaling towards the door with his head. “If you guys wanna continue breaking things there’s a nice, wide street right there, _but_ before that, why don’t you try to chill out for a damn second? And since I’m part of the team now, it’d be nice to know what the hell is going on with my buddies.”

Tension was still present in both Vergil and Nero when he finished talking, but at least it seemed that his intervention had helped to calm the situation a little. Dante stepped aside not to be in the middle anymore, considering that the risk of those two crossing blades in an imminent future was low for now, given that neither Nero nor Vergil made any attempt to recover their weapons to resume their fight.

“What happens, Dante, is that your nephew is incapable of admitting that he has been caught lying.”

Vergil’s irritation was addressed to Nero, but Dante felt his heart skip a beat nevertheless.

On their way there, Nero had told him that he hadn’t said Vergil anything about the call. He had also mentioned the excuse he had given to his father when going to visit him, an excuse that, by basing on their current situation, Vergil had managed to discover it was fake.

“And I tell you that I’m _not_ lying. Kyrie didn’t call last night.”

To Nero’s credit, the boy hadn’t looked nervous at all when answering, his eyes sustaining Vergil’s accusing gaze without blinking, so maybe - _maybe_ \- there was a chance that he could convince Vergil.

Dante’s hopes vanished when Vergil chuckled in a low tone that contrasted with the harshness of his eyes. So then, Vergil suspected something about the call but didn’t know anything about Nero having gone to visit him? Damn, it sucked to know certain things but not having been present during the whole father and son discussion. He didn’t know what he could do to help Nero without exposing himself. For the time being he had to keep quiet and observe in silence, something Dante wasn’t used to, and hated.

“Perhaps you are not aware of this, boy, but your lying habits follow a pattern. And in practically all the times where you have done so, that woman has been involved one way or another.”

Nero exhaled an exasperated sigh.

“Dad, listen to me,” damn, the kid had to be really desperate to sound close to beg, “I know that you haven’t forgiven me for that time when I invited Kyrie to stay here without consulting you first.”

“My son, are you sure that mentioning _that_ incident is the correct approach right now?”

“But I swear to the Savior that I didn’t talk to her last night. I _didn’t_ , okay? I _swear_.”

Actually, Nero wasn’t lying. It was true that he hadn’t got in touch with that girl, and the sincerity was evident in the kid’s eyes and tone, at least for Dante. However, Vergil’s expression didn’t soften, which made Dante deduce what was the next topic the man was going to mention even before he did it.

“So you also swear that your escapade this morning had nothing to do with that woman?”

“Yes.” Again, the kid wasn’t lying, and if Dante had been in Nero’s place, he would have left it at that, waiting for whatever Vergil had to say because when his brother asked something in _that_ tone, it meant that Vergil knew more than what one could think off. Apparently, Nero still had room for improvement in regards to reading Vergil, and therefore continued talking when he should have remained silent. “As I said, I went to buy some stuff for the kids, but I didn’t manage to find anything on the list and—”

“They called.”

Dante had to push back a grimace when Nero froze in shock with the cold words Vergil calmly dropped.

“What?”

Vergil made a theatrical pause while crossing his arms, and the temperature of the room - cold enough already due to the damn broken window - managed to drop a little more when Vergil proceeded to continue talking.

“Those orphans, they called this morning and said that they had found the presents that you and that woman had already bought.” And when Nero got pale, paler than Dante had ever seen the kid be, he realized that all the chances that Nero could have ever had to convince Vergil of his lie had been crushed. “So, I’m not going to ask you once again, boy. You’re going to tell me who called, and where you have been during almost the entire morning, or _I_ swear that I will pay that ex-fiancée of yours a visit to—”

“I called.”

* * *

During the two hours that Vergil spent waiting, he had plenty of time to analyze Nero’s recent behavior. All that thinking allowed him to deduce what he didn’t the previous night, which was that his son had been hiding something since that phone call. Now it was evident. The reason why Nero had woken up so early was that he had been long awake, and for his son not to have a peaceful sleep it could only mean one thing: an uneasy conscience.

In Vergil's defense, he had given Nero the benefit of doubt before the events in the office were inevitably triggered. When Nero had come home, he had shown off some admirable patience by waiting for him to enter the office before asking him how his day had gone.

It hadn’t been until Nero chose to keep lying, commenting with a too casual, fake tone that he hadn’t managed to find any presents for those orphans, that he had lost his temper to show the boy the risks of keeping secrets for that woman’s sake.

They had been fighting for a few minutes, with Nero uselessly trying to justify himself and him ignoring all his excuses, when Dante interrupted them, forcing him to continue his conversation with Nero while leaving the clash of blades aside.

While the conversation between him and Nero took place, Vergil had almost forgotten his brother’s uncharacteristic quiet presence until the man talked. The fact that his attention and anger were devoted to his son was probably the reason why he didn’t immediately catch the meaning of what Dante had said.

“Come again?” he asked while looking at Dante, failing to see the astonishment that appeared in Nero’s face when his uncle decided to step in.

“I’ve said I was the one who called last night.” After a small pause, during which Nero tensed and Dante seemed to gather his thoughts, his brother kept talking. “And for the record, I was also the one who asked Nero to come seeing me without telling you.”

“Dante, what are you—”

“Kid, come on, you have covered for me enough already,” Dante situated next to Nero and patted his shoulder twice, “but you being killed by your old man for my sake was never part of the plan.”

“What plan?” Vergil inquired with an impatient tone that made Dante look at him again.

“Well, it turns out that my crazy night went a little crazier than expected, and I ended up wasting more money than I thought, so I had to ask the kid for a little extra to pay the debt.”

Vergil half-closed his eyes, not liking the embarrassed expression that had gradually appeared in Dante’s face while the man talked.

“And how much exactly did you waste?”

“Uhm, well, without the extra—”

“ _With_ the extra, Dante.” Vergil’s eyes evolved from half-closed to fully open when hearing the exorbitant sum, just to end half-closed again while his jaw clenched. “I really hope that this is one of your poor jokes.”

Dante’s nervous laughter confirmed Vergil’s worst suspicion.

“I could say that, brother, but you’ve just left clear how much you dislike lies.”

Vergil’s first impulse was to teleport and recover his sword to teach his foolish twin a lesson about money saving, but at the end he exhaled a deep breath while pinching the bridge of his nose. There had been some surprising wisdom in Dante’s previous words. The office was damaged enough as it was, and though he could certainly continue his business outside, he needed his brother alive and fully functioning to repair the harm done.

“In that case, since this misunderstanding has been _your_ fault, I guess it goes without saying that you will be in charge of cleaning this mess—”

“No.” Vergil wasn’t the only one surprised after Nero talked with a definite tone, Dante looked just the same. “Dante may have wasted a bunch of money, but he wasn’t the one in destroying the place: _we_ did it.” Vergil was starting to open his mouth when Nero pointed an accusatory finger at him. “And don’t get me started with you threatening Kyrie when she had nothing to do with all this. So, we _all_ are in charge of cleaning this mess, and I don’t want to hear any excuses from any of you, understood?”

Vergil remained silent while looking at Nero, also feeling Dante tensing next to him because, needless to say, no one had ever dared to give orders to him. The only demon for whom he had been obliged to kneel and whom he had been forced to obey had been Mundus, and when being freed from his control, he had sworn to himself that he would never submit to anyone else.

Again, Nero was an exception. The boy could be quite brute on a common basis, but unlike him, ordering around wasn’t something Nero used to do; so, when he did it, Vergil was annoyed to discover that it was with a sound motive, even if he wasn’t willing to always admit it.

Of course, hearing his son talking about his fiancée was as irritating as usual. It did not matter how much Nero assured him that he and Kyrie were just friends now, he found it hard to believe that that woman had been able to get over Nero, so he didn’t like one bit that his son continued interacting with someone who harbored that kind of feelings. However, this time his son had a point, and sadly it seemed that he had blamed that insufferable woman without motive for once. 

Also, Nero going as far as lying to defend Dante was something excessive, and unnecessary. Dante was a grown-up man, and had to take care of the consequences of his acts. However, given Nero’s fear of him carrying one of his fights with Dante too far, and his strong will of protecting the family he had come to have, it was logical that Nero had tried to avoid any new confrontation between them.

All that caused that, instead of protesting, Vergil merely interchanged a glance with Dante before nodding towards Nero, acknowledging the kid’s decision with less reluctance than he would have usually showed.

It took them almost an entire hour to leave the office presentable enough. Their injuries had already healed when they finished and each one of them dropped in a different seat to rest: Nero on the sofa, with both of his arms extended and resting on the back pillows, Vergil on the armchair that he had recently acquired, and Dante on a chair sitting backwards, with his arms crossed on the backrest.

“So, I guess that the broken window will go to my expenses too, right?” Dante said with an exaggerated resigned tone that Vergil knew too well. It was the tone Dante adopted when he wanted to be contradicted out of pity, and therefore he didn’t fall for it.

“Obviously,” he interlaced his fingers on his lap and crossed his legs while offering Dante a pointed look. “After all, nothing of this would have happened if you had been brave enough to speak the truth.”

Vergil was expecting some kind of excuse coming from Dante, but he obtained a resigned lopsided smile instead.

“I know. But it’s not always easy to do that, you know?” Dante passed a hand through his hair before laughing again while looking at Nero. “Poor thing. I think he’s fallen asleep.”

Vergil followed Dante’s eyes and verified that, indeed, Nero had managed to fall asleep on the sofa. He sighed with patience, wondering how the boy hadn’t broken his neck yet with those uncomfortable sleeping postures.

“I guess that he has forgotten about his promise of preparing lunch.”

The comment gained him a reproaching glance from Dante.

“Don’t be an ass and let him sleep. The kid has had enough with both of us already.”

“Speak for yourself. Your indecent behavior is the main culprit of his current tiredness.”

“Yeah, right, because you fighting him has _nothing_ to do with it.”

Vergil was about to answer but at that moment his stomach had the nerve of betraying him by sounding, something that Dante noticed, since his brother was an expert in missing the important details while catching the irrelevant, inconvenient ones.

“Well, well, well, it looks like someone is hungry.” For sure he would have found a proper reply to Dante’s mocking comment if at the moment he hadn’t been distracted by Dante taking a hold of a bag that he hadn’t noticed was resting on the sofa till then. “Fear not, brother: I have the perfect solution for your empty stomach.”

Vergil observed with suspicion the bag that Dante was handing him over the broken coffee table before deciding to take it. He didn’t exactly know what he expected to find inside, but definitely it wasn’t a box of one of the bakeries of the area.

“What is this?” he inquired, his still suspicious tone causing Dante to blink at him slowly.

“Okay, I’ll give you a hint: it’s a four-letters words that starts with ‘f’ and ends with—”

“I know that, you fool,” Vergil said with impatience while Dante’s eyes kept glinting with annoying amusement. “What I fail to understand is why you have wasted the money you do not have in buying this.”

“Easy: it’s a bribe so that you forgive me for my ‘indecent behavior’.”

Vergil clicked his tongue and uncrossed his legs to rest the wrapped package on his knees.

“First the dagger, and now this. You’re making a habit of bringing things to me to gain my forgiveness.”

“Yep, I know, but as long as it works...”

He snorted softly, starting to unleash the lace of the box.

“No offense, little brother, but I think Hell will freeze over before you get my culinary tastes right—”

Vergil had to interrupt himself when opening the small box, hoping that his stomach behaved and didn’t sound _again_ with the sight of the elaborated pastries carefully placed inside the box.

“You were saying about Hell, Verg?”

Dante’s too proud tone made Vergil meet his brother’s satisfied eyes with a glare.

“Even the biggest of the fools has luck sometimes,” he said with a dismissive tone that, this time, didn’t seem to affect Dante much, aside from making it chuckle.

“Yeah, well, I guess it was a luck that the shop had cakes with cream _but_ not too much cream, no raisins at all and just a tinge of cinnamon.”

Unlike his son, whose feelings were always written in his young face, Vergil didn’t use to display his own so openly. This time though, he couldn’t prevent his arrogant expression from changing into one of light stupor when hearing his brother, just before recovering his usual serious one.

“Dante, can you explain to me why do you still remember such a thing but you are unable to pay your bills in time?”

His brother looked at him for a moment, shrugged his shoulders, and answered while offering him an uncharacteristic warm smile.

“Beats me. But if I had to make a guess, maybe this fool is getting old already, and only remembers the things he truly cares about.”

Vergil didn’t know what surprised him most: his brother’s open admission of caring about him, or the warmth that those words brought to him, and which felt too familiar to the one that used to destabilize V as his feelings for Nero grew stronger.

But of course, it couldn’t be _that_ same kind of warmth. At the moment V was starting to fall for Nero, and in this case, it was Dante the one involved: _Dante_. His brother and sworn rival. It was completely different. It had to be.

“Well, it would be good for the business that you put some effort in remembering the later as well.”

His reply didn’t sound as reproaching as he had intended, and Dante seemed to notice because he chuckled.

“I promise I’ll try.” Dante patted the backrest with both hands once and stood up. “So, now that the matter with the 'lunch' is solved, I'd like to take a shower, with your permission of course.”

His brother taking a shower wasn’t a matter to which Vergil had ever devoted any kind of thought, but at that moment he remembered that particular time two weeks ago, when he had caught Dante in the bathroom and pinned him there while the man was utterly naked…

“Uhm, hello? Earth calling Verg?”

Dante’s confused comment made Vergil realize that he had spaced out thinking about something completely unnecessary.

“Yes, you may,” he said after suppressing the urge of clearing his throat. “But of course, until you pay your debt—”

“—you will be discounting part of the water bill from my earnings, yeah, I know how stingy you are.” Again, Vergil didn’t know why his eyes had to briefly travel to Dante’s flat stomach when this one was partially shown after the man stretched his arms over his head. “Make sure to leave the kid some food, okay? I don’t want you to blame me for getting fat again.”

At least, the mention of that taboo topic helped Vergil to _finally_ stop thinking nonsense and look at Dante with a murderous expression.

“I told you already that I didn’t get fat. It was a logical phase of the growing process.”

Vergil half-closed his eyes even more when Dante was clearly suppressing a laughter while nodding slowly.

“If you say so, brother.” Vergil thought that Dante had wisely pushed the topic aside when suddenly Dante continued talking from the stairs with a mocking tone. “Although in your case it didn’t precisely affect your height.”

Using Yamato to punish Dante would have made their combined efforts to fix the office to go to waste, so Vergil contented himself with invoking his smaller spectral blades so that they attacked Dante on his hurried way to the second floor. 

Once again, he admired Nero’s deep sleep, since it was not the least affected by the stunts that Dante was forced to make in order to avoid them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if someone was hoping that Vergil found out Dante's secret already, but I thought it was funnier that the man was kept in the dark a little longer while starting to realize his feelings for Dante, since I'm a sucker for mutual pining hehehe :P
> 
> Also, a little late but Merry Christmas! I hope that everyone is spending some nice days no matter if you celebrate the festivity or not <3 :P


	8. I'm scared

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the first DMC update of 2021!! So, a little late but Happy New Year to the ones reading this story <3 <3 Hope you have started well the year, even if 2021 has started 'strong' in several parts of the world ^^U

“D-Dad!” Nero exclaimed with urgency in the lowest possible tone when Vergil’s next thrusts caused the bed to start to bang against the wall that connected with the adjacent bedroom. “Fuck, dad, don’t go so ha— _ah_!”

Nero’s warning was interrupted with a moan when his father ignored him and started pounding inside him with more vigor from behind, smacking his prostate every time now with an unforgiving rhythm that made Nero’s eyes shut closed for the stimulation. He bit his lower lip, his knuckles turning white while clutching at the sheets with the effort he was doing to keep his groans as muffled as possible.

Vergil clicked his tongue in disapproval and leaned forward so Nero could feel his father’s naked chest in touch with his back.

“You seem to be in the mood of provoking me, son.” The hair in the back of Nero’s head stood when Vergil hissed that sentence in his ear in a threatening tone. “You should know by now how much I dislike when you refrain your voice.”

Nero swore under his breath with arousal when Vergil ended the sentence by sinking his teeth on the juncture between his neck and shoulder. His father then released one of his hips and reached around to grab Nero’s erection. He cursed a second time, louder, when Vergil changed to a pace of slower but deeper thrusts, while starting jerking him off with a hard rhythm like the way that he was being fucked.

It was evident that Vergil wanted to make him be as vocal as usual, and the man managed to do despite his futile attempts of being silent. He ended up calling his father’s name seconds before his orgasm hit him like a wave. His arms trembled with the effort of keeping his body raised, allowing Vergil to ride his own climax between humming groans.

Nero breathed laboredly with his eyes closed and his head lowered between his shoulders. He focused on recovering his breath while Vergil groped his buttocks, pressing them repeatedly together while emptying inside him with some final, shallow thrusts. At least, the man had been thoughtful enough to use a condom. Nero didn’t mind at all to do it raw, but he had a train to take and, as he had predicted, he didn’t have much time to spare.

He couldn’t believe yet that Vergil had accepted his petition of spending Christmas with Kyrie and the kids so easily.

To be fair, he didn’t care much about the festivity. During his childhood and subsequent years, Fortuna had been living in its own bubble, as if the outside world didn’t even exist. It hadn’t been until after the incident with the Savior that the city had started to ‘open up’ and some customs had begun to spread from then on.

Nero and Kyrie had never celebrated Christmas when they were together, aware that the city had mainly adopted that tradition for economic reasons, but then the orphans entered the picture, so evidently, a tradition where good children received presents as a prize for their behavior was something that both Carlo and Kyle - more Carlo than Kyle, to be fair - wanted to celebrate together.

Nero perfectly knew what Vergil thought of him spending time with ‘that woman and orphans’, so the previous night he had been prepared for one of his father’s scary ‘outbursts’ when he tested the waters during dinner by suggesting it. The tension that had fallen on the table during the dinner after he mentioned the topic had been as dangerous as he expected. In fact, Dante had subtly taken Vergil’s knife when seeing the man offering Nero one of those cold, reproving looks that used to explode in something way less calm.

However, after a few seconds of nerve-wrecking silence - during which Nero had already accepted he would stay in the office - Vergil had averted his eyes in deep thought and surprised him by saying that he could go. He didn’t offer any further explanation to such an unexpected decision, and Nero preferred not to push his luck by asking further. After all, his father may keep certain things to himself, but he had never hidden how much Kyrie’s innocent existence annoyed him. If Vergil hadn’t wanted him to go, he wouldn’t have been subtle about it, so Nero deduced that his leave was benefitting his father in some way or another, maybe to carry out some job that Nero would disapprove of in case of knowing details about it.

Still, despite Vergil’s predisposition to let him go, Vergil did what he always did when Nero’s destination was Fortuna: the man pounced on him the moment they reached their bedroom to ‘kindly’ remind him whom he belonged to now.

Even if Nero used to enjoy the sessions that resulted from his father’s possessiveness, that night he had tensed when Vergil captured his mouth and pulled at his clothes with evident intent, aware that Dante was just at the other side of that room. It would be the first time he was having sex with Vergil when his uncle was around, since Dante hadn’t been in the office too much during the week and half that followed the almost destruction of the place.

The man had been extra busy getting back the money that he spent - or ‘wasted’, as Vergil always corrected him - in that club. That had given Nero some room to maneuver, allowing him to make the most of Dante’s absence to press his father’s buttons and take him to bed when he knew there was no risk of being interrupted. That’s why that night, while Vergil walked him towards their bed, he had asked the man if it didn’t bother him that Dante could hear them. Vergil had only huffed while continuing undressing him, arguing that Dante wouldn’t show the same courtesy in case of finding himself a lover for the night.

Nero had to say goodbye to that excuse to convince his father not to wreck him when Dante was around, so he did his best to end switching their positions to mount his father with the rhythm that _he_ wanted, which gave him more control to keep his noises at an acceptable level of volume. At least, his breathless admissions of belonging to Vergil and to Vergil alone between ride and ride never failed to please his father, leaving him satisfied enough so that he didn’t feel like speeding the rhythm much.

That morning had been different, since he had woken up with Vergil’s erection slowly sliding between his buttocks. He had barely time to snap out his sleepy state before Vergil was fucking him stupid, and although he had tried to keep as silent as possible for Dante’s sake, being quiet in that position was an impossible task.

Nero was brought back to the present when Vergil pulled out from him, exhaling a long, satisfied sigh that hinted that the man had enjoyed their intercourse. As always that Nero was fucked from behind, his father deposited a final, gentler bite on his shoulder before abandoning the bed, presumably to the bathroom to discard the condom and wash his hands. Nero lay on the bed, facing up with his hands resting on his stomach. His naked chest was still going up and down heavily, not only due to the recent sex but also for the pang of discomfort that assaulted him when realizing that it was rather unlikely that Dante hadn’t heard them.

He didn’t know if he should apologize for that. He hadn’t had the chance to talk to Dante in private since his uncle’s big reveal, but maybe it was a topic that Dante preferred not to touch. At least, he doubted that he was willing to talk about it in case of being in Dante’s shoes. The mere thought of Vergil being with someone other than him was enough to make him grit his teeth, and Dante was going through exactly that.

Sure, Dante had insisted that he would be okay with their arrangement, and that he ‘would get used to it in no time’, but the more Nero knew Dante, the more he realized that, in certain aspects, the man was more like his twin than what it could seem at first glance. Dante may look more open, but Nero couldn’t forget that the man had been hiding his feelings for Vergil for _years_ , something that Nero wouldn’t have _ever_ imagined if it hadn’t been for that call.

Damn, maybe asking his uncle to continue staying with them hadn’t been the good thing to do, as he had initially believed. Maybe there was another solution that he wasn’t seeing, a better one, but if it existed, Nero hadn’t figured it out which it was yet.

However, despite the discomfort that Dante could sometimes feel - and hide -, there was something that Nero was sure Dante wasn’t faking, and it was how comfortable he was around Vergil. They may discuss almost every time they talked, but it was undeniable that his father was in a better mood than the months when Dante had gone missing.

And about that, Nero wasn’t very sure how to feel.

Of course, it was an improvement from when they were trying to kill each other, but sometimes, when hearing them arguing and bringing up incidents of their childhood that he had _never_ heard about, he felt...off. Because it made him realize that despite the efforts that he had put into knowing Vergil before getting together, Dante would _always_ beat him to it. And that...That was a little frustrating.

Nero exhaled a deep sigh and placed a hand behind his head. At least, that situation with the three of them living together wasn’t going to last forever. It was evident that Dante would leave when his office was repaired, in roughly a month or so. Two maximum.

He didn’t like the idea of keeping something from Vergil for so long, but in this case, there was no other option. Dante didn’t want his secret to be exposed, and to be honest, Nero was glad for it. As much as he had tried to ignore it, and to push it aside, there was that annoying fear gnawing at him, telling him that things could irremediably change if Vergil learnt about Dante’s feelings; and that, in that case, maybe the Sparda who ended abandoning the office wasn’t the Legendary Devil Hunter…

“Speak your mind.”

Nero’s heart skipped a beat when hearing Vergil’s commanding words, that put a momentary stop to the worries that had been assaulting him from time to time since discovering Dante’s secret. He hadn’t realized that his father had already returned from the bathroom a few seconds ago, and that had been observing him from the door frame during that time with his arms crossed and an inquisitive expression on his face.

“What?”

His dumbfounded tone made his father half-close his eyes with impatience.

“It’s not like you to get lost so deep in your thoughts.” Vergil crawled on the bed to pin him there by setting his hands on either side of his head, his grey eyes scanning him. “I know something is bothering you. So, speak. _Now_.”

That was Vergil’s usual way of showing concern for him. Normally Nero found that harshness funny, but right then he gulped while thinking how he could answer without revealing too much. Luckily, the way his thoughts had evolved made it easier than he thought.

“Are you sure that it’s fine that I go?” he asked, because suddenly, leaving Vergil and Dante alone didn’t look like such a good idea.

Vergil’s frown slowly vanished, as if he knew exactly what was wrong with him. Nero tensed at that, but Vergil's next words proved to him that his father didn’t know what the actual source of Nero’s unease was, and that he believed that Nero had addressed the topic of Fortuna due to guilt.

“Well, you already know what I think of that woman.” A wolfy smirk slowly formed in Vergil’s face. “And therefore, you better be prepared to compensate such a merciful decision when coming back.”

Nero shivered when Vergil lowered his head to dig his teeth on one of the hickeys that was already fading in his neck. When his father’s mouth captured his, he rested his hands on Vergil’s waist, where his pajama pants were still dangling lower than they should, leaving his V shape exposed.

If the circumstances were different, Nero would have been glad when Vergil eventually abandoned the bed, since that would give him more time to reach the station without any hurry. Now though, Vergil’s rapid acceptance confirmed his previous suspicions of Vergil having some kind of hidden schema.

“So, have any big plans while I’m away?” He inquired when Vergil was about to abandon the room. His father stopped, offered him an imperturbable look, and talked with a matching tone.

“Worry not, Nero: Dante and I will figure something out not to get bored during your absence.”

When Vergil avoided his question while mentioning Dante, Nero felt his stomach clenching with discomfort, feeling frustrated that Vergil planned to include his uncle in his plans while leaving him out of it.

He didn’t realize that he had remained in a mild frozen state in bed until hearing the shower. Any other day he would have joined his father without hesitation, while protesting for going ahead and showering when he was the one who was more in a hurry, but that morning he dressed in the essential clothes - meaning, his underwear - before paying a visit to Dante’s room.

He raised his hand to knock, but he stopped just when his fist was about to connect against the door, realizing that he had no actual clue of what to say to Dante. His mind was kind of a mess right now, so probably talking without thinking - as usual - wasn’t a very good idea. He could end saying the wrong thing or giving Dante a hint of the things that were rounding his head, and that was the last thing he wanted unless he wanted to make things between them awkward as hell.

He was already turning around to come back to his room, determined to bury those worries once again, when luck wanted Dante to abandon his room at that precise moment, humming a song to himself, sport pants on but shirt off and a towel hanging on his neck.

“Hey, good morning, kid,” Dante greeted with his usual cheery tone before glaring at the bathroom. “Damn, not again...”

Without giving him time to react, Dante approached the bathroom to snap a fist against its closed door.

“Oi, Verg, you promised me that today I’d be first, you liar!”

“I’m quite sure I did not make such a promise.”

“Okay, maybe you didn’t sign a damn paper, but you _said_ it!”

“Well, perhaps you should try getting up early for once and that way you wouldn’t find the shower occupied.”

“Jeez, what has happened with that honorable warrior whose word could be trusted?”

“Dante, are you even listening to yourself?”

“What do you say, Verg? I can’t hear you due to the warm water that you’re stealing from me.”

The tension that Nero was already experiencing increased when witnessing Dante and Vergil’s interaction, realizing that as annoyed as they could sound, that lingering teasing that belonged just to them kept being there, like always.

He didn’t realize that his hands were turning into fists until Dante started to turn around, so he rapidly relaxed them. While the man completed the movement with laziness, Nero’s eyes couldn’t help to pay better attention to Dante’s figure. He couldn’t deny that the man was hot, a fact that somehow was more evident when the man was in that half-naked state. Nero was pretty sure that if Dante kept his bigmouth under control, the man could seduce whoever he wanted, which given his current state of mind, increased his worry of leaving him and Vergil alone.

“Fuck, kid, you better come back soon from your trip. I can’t promise I won't try to kill your old man in the meantime...” Dante interrupted himself and a light frown appeared in his face while looking at him. “You okay?”

Nero insulted himself internally. He had tried to be as relaxed as possible, but it seemed that he hadn’t succeeded.

“Yeah,” he said with his best casual tone before signaling his bedroom. “I’m gonna pack my things.”

Without offering any more explanations, and wanting to prevent that Dante asked further, he entered his room and closed the door behind him.

He had just changed himself and had placed his bag on the bed to store some spare clothes when the door opened again, and Dante entered without permission.

“What the—” Nero exclaimed, frowning at his uncle when this one rested his back against the closed door with his arms crossed, casually cutting his escape route. “Hey, don’t you know what privacy is or what?”

“Spit it out, kid.”

Nero froze, his eyes snapping wide. It was the second time that he was caught trying to hide something that morning, first by Vergil, and now by Dante. But hey, with his father he had managed to pass his scrutiny, so with Dante it should be even easier.

However, there was something that stopped him from trying to pretend, and it was Dante’s tone. The man’s words may have been straightforward, not leaving much room for made-up excuses, but they had sounded amiable, and carried a tinge of patience that hinted that his uncle knew he was hiding something.

After a moment of hesitation, Nero sighed with defeat and sat on the bed with elbows leaning on his knees. It seemed that Dante and he had changed roles from last week, and that now it was his turn to give explanations.

“Okay, how the hell you know there’s something wrong?”

Dante must have decided that he was not going to try to run away from the room because he separated from the door to approach the bed.

“I’m sorry to tell you, but masking your feelings isn’t something you had inherited from your daddy.” Nero snorted while Dante took a seat next to him. “So, unless it has something to do with some bedroom problems between your old man and you - in which case, please, _don’t_ tell me - I’m all ears.”

Dante’s exaggerated tone made Nero chuckle against his will. He sighed while crossing his arms on his knees and then tilted his head to look at Dante, who had rested his hands on the bed on either side of his body, waiting for his answer.

“Don’t worry, it’s not about that.”

Dante nodded slowly.

“Figured it out. Neither of you sounded like having any problem a moment ago.”

Nero closed his eyes in mortification after hearing Dante’s super casual tone.

“So you heard us.” Dante hummed once, affirmatively, and Nero leaned the side of his temple on his hand, still without opening his eyes. “Sorry, next time I promise you that I’d be more silent.” The silence that fell next caused Nero to open his eyes to look at Dante, who was looking back at him with his mouth half-opened. “What?”

“You’re serious.” Nero blinked, not understanding Dante’s stupor. “Nero, I told you that you didn’t need to change your habits for me, so if you are the loud type, by all means, keep being it.”

“I’m not the loud type.” Nero blushed at Dante’s ‘ _Really?_ ’s expression. “I mean, not _always_.”

Nero regretted his annotation when seeing the way Dante’s eyes shined with amusement.

“Yeah, I get what you mean. Some positions feel better than the others. I still remember this one chick that just mewled while I was on top but _damn_ , when we changed to the cowgirl, she ended up moaning even louder than you, I tell you.”

“Dante, _please_.”

The pleading component of his comment made Dante start to laugh quietly.

“Hey, come on, I was just trying to let you know it’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”

The way Dante patted his shoulder ‘reassuringly’ didn’t make Nero feel less embarrassed, and he suspected that was exactly why Dante had done it.

“You’re a jerk.”

Dante chuckled and nodded without any shame.

“I know. But hey,” Dante’s elbowed him playfully, “at least you look more relaxed.”

Nero would have liked to argue against that, but Dante was right. Somehow, the topic had caused that almost all the tension that he was feeling when Dante entered the room vanished.

“So, since we’ve concluded that your sexual life is not the problem here,” Dante’s tone turned more serious, “wanna tell me what is it? Because I may be mistaken, but my gut is telling me I’m somehow involved, right?”

Despite Dante’s predisposition to listen, Nero found himself having trouble in fulfilling his uncle’s petition. It was the first time that he understood why V had refused to answer so many of his questions back then. Nero had always thought that being direct and speaking your mind was the best way to avoid trouble, and that it made everything simpler.

Now, he realized it wasn’t always like that. After all, putting thoughts into words would make them become even more real than they were, and admitting aloud what it bothered him, what it _truly_ bothered him, would imply a point of no return.

He must have remained silent more time than he thought, because at that moment Dante patted his shoulder once, this time with actual reassurance.

“It’s okay, kid, really.” Nero felt the bed creak when Dante’s weight abandoned the bed, and the man approached the door with the intention to leave. “As I’ve said, you don’t have to feel pressured to tell me anything, but if you ever change your mind—”

“I’m scared.”

If Dante had been wearing his boots, they would have skidded on the floor due to the full turn he gave when hearing his blurted-out confession. After all, pride was something that characterized Sparda, and making such admission wasn’t something that Vergil, Dante or their father would have ever done.

It seemed that he, as the third generation of the Sparda, had less trouble in showing weakness, even if it frustrated him to have reached that point.

“Scared?” Dante repeated, his expression looking beyond confused now. “Of what?”

Nero finally brought himself to avert his eyes from the ground to look at Dante.

“Of you.”

Dante blinked before a mocking expression appeared in his face.

“Wow, that’s rude.” The fact that Dante used his usual joking tone to try to sooth the mood made Nero feel even worse with what was coming, but he couldn’t lie now. If he wanted that things worked between Dante and him given their circumstances, he had to be sincere. “I admit that I’m not at my best just after waking up, but scaring you is a little excessive—”

“I’m scared that you and Vergil grow even closer the more time passes,” Nero admitted, which caused Dante to go instantly silent. It was difficult, but the last thing he owed Dante was to look at the man in the eyes while he poured out his heart to the last person that was supposed to hear his bullshit. “I’m scared that by spending time with you, Vergil falls for you too. And above all, I’m scared that Vergil realizes that _you_ are the one with whom he wants to be.” He gulped and stood up to be at Dante’s level. “And now go ahead and hit me.”

His last words caused Dante’s eyes to go even wider.

“Uhm...Sorry, could you repeat that last bit?”

“Hit me.”

“Aham, so I _did_ hear it right. Okay. And the reason why I should hit you is because…?”

“Because I deserve it,” Nero snapped with a frustrated tone that made Dante blink slowly, as if the man didn’t believe what he was saying. “You’re the one who was supposed to be with Vergil, but I took that chance away from you, and not happy with that, I’m the one putting all this crap on you.” Nero closed his eyes again and nodded with determination. “So go ahead, Dante. You don’t have to hold yourself back.”

A silence fell in the room, and when after some seconds Nero felt Dante approach him, he clenched his jaw, bracing for the impact of Dante’s fist connecting with his face.

He was so ready for the pain to come that the warm feeling of Dante’s hand on the back of his head made him jump startled.

His heart skipped a beat when opening his eyes again and finding Dante’s face closer than expected. Then, Dante’s face got even closer, and for a very brief instant he thought that the man was going to kiss him, but Dante simply guided his head forward so that their foreheads connected.

“Careful with what you ask for, kid. I may have a crush on your old man, but if a handsome boy like you asks me not to hold back...Shit, it may be a temptation too big for me to stand.”

The seductive tone that Dante used made Nero grit his teeth.

“Fuck, Dante, I’m being serious here—!”

This time, his uncle _did_ kiss him, and although it was just a quick peck on his forehead, the innocent action was so unexpected that Nero felt the tip of his ears reddening while Dante pulled back with a warm smile, putting some distance between them but keeping his hand on the back of Nero’s head.

“I know you are, Nero.” It was the first time that he heard that warmness in Dante’s tone. “But seriously, sometimes I think you’re not aware of how damn good you are. I told you that you’re impossible to hate, but I think it’s better to say that it’s impossible not liking you. There’s no wonder why Verg fell for you. Finding someone as honest as you, someone without masks, who isn’t afraid to say how he _really_ feels and who genuinely cares about people… Finding _that_ isn't easy in such a crappy world.”

Dante’s praise didn’t help Nero’s ears come back to his normal color. Also, the way Dante’s fingers briefly grasped the back of his short hair before retiring his hand caused a small shiver down his spine. At least, if Dante had noticed that last detail, he didn’t say anything about it.

“So, in case it’s not clear, I’m not gonna hit you, kid. I don’t wanna hit you. You have done _nothing_ to deserve it, and honestly, if I were you, I’d stop worrying about all those things because believe me: there’s no way that Vergil falls for a fool like me while he already has someone like you by his side.”

Dante’s sincere certainty should have caused Nero to feel relieved, but somehow, it made him frown.

“And why the hell are you so sure of that?”

His suspicion of Dante being undervaluing himself was confirmed when his uncle talked again.

“Because unlike you, I’ve done nothing to deserve it.”

Nero wasn’t expecting the wave of anger that spread within him when hearing that Dante really believed that. Damn, a minute ago he was afraid that Dante seduced his father, and now he was pissed off because the man didn’t consider himself good enough to give that step. Long live his incoherence.

“That you don’t—” Nero had to take a deep breath not to snap the next words too loudly. The bathroom wasn’t that far away after all, and Vergil’s hearing was scarily sharp. “Dante, Vergil wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for you.”

Dante shook his head no with such conviction that Nero felt like punching him.

“No, Nero. You were there for V when he needed it, and the one who saved him by taking him to Urizen.”

“Yeah, but you were the one who gave Vergil a reason to keep going.” Nero said with determination while digging his index finger on Dante’s chest. “If it weren’t for _you_ , there would have been no one to save. And I don’t know if you’re blind or what, but the bond you share, the one that has always tied you together...Shit, nothing can compare to that. Not even the one _I_ share with him.”

Dante exhaled a soft laugh before shaking his head.

“Damn, Nero, keep saying things like that and I’ll start to believe I have a chance with your old man.”

Nero observed Dante in silence. And then, the last words he could have expected to say escaped him.

“You have it”, he said, ignoring Dante’s skeptic expression. “So, if someday you grow some balls and finally confess to him, you better be ready, old man, because I’m not planning to renounce to Vergil without a fight.”

Dante laughed and nodded, but Nero noticed that the man had no intention of doing such a thing.

“I’ll remember it, but don’t worry: if one day I do that, a fight won’t be necessary, since it’s obvious who your old man would choose.”

Nero rolled his eyes, still not believing the self-esteems issues that his uncle kept hidden under that perpetual layer of bravado.

His annoyance and Dante’s amusement must have been present when the door suddenly opened and Vergil entered, with a towel around his waist and his usual pushed-back hair falling into his eyes.

“Whatever thing this fool is trying to get you into, don’t listen to him” Vergil said with a conversational tone while passing them by to recover his clothes, causing Dante to huff with an exaggerated offended expression.

“You have some nerve, Verg. Accusing me without any evidence.”

“Please, it’s evident who among the two has more possibilities to cause trouble.”

Dante snorted and after winking at Nero conspiratorially as goodbye, he adopted the same tone Vergil had used.

“You should consider leaving your hair like that, big bro. Your entries are not so evident with that hairstyle.”

Nero smiled when Dante hurried his last steps towards the bathroom to lock himself in while Vergil recovered from his stupor before going after his twin with a menacing aura.

He was glad to notice that the discomfort that he had felt during the twin’s previous argument didn’t appear in the one that followed.

While the twins fought, he finished preparing his things and said goodbye to them when Dante was still locked inside the bathroom and Vergil heatedly defended that his hair was perfect and as abundant as always.

Once he was in the bus taking him to the station, Nero reviewed once again his conversation with Dante. Getting out that fear that he had been ignoring since discovering Dante’s situation had lifted a weight from his shoulders, and also, it had made him aware of something unexpected: his main fear of Vergil loving Dante back was not the affection per se, but the fact that Vergil could cast him aside, replacing him by Dante.

Or, in other words, if his relationship with Vergil didn’t change, as long as his father kept loving him, Nero didn’t quite mind that Dante entered the equation.

He spent the whole bus trip lost in his thoughts, analyzing this new piece of information, and when he abandoned the bus, he decided that it was worth it to test the waters with his father when he came back.

Because maybe, just maybe, that better solution that had been escaping him until then could actually exist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Theoretically this chapter was gonna be mostly focused on Vergil/Dante, but somehow, a wild Dante/Nero moment appeared, and since the chapter was long enough already I decided to stop it right here <3


	9. It wasn't your fault

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the ones who haven't read "And Secrecy, the Human Dress", again there are some minor references related to the [chapter 13](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23247931/chapters/61773199) of that fic, but it's not necessary at all to read it to understand this chapter :)

Dante exhaled a long, satisfied sigh while continuing stroking his now softened member with a lazy tempo. The water of the shower rapidly erased the criminal evidence from the plate where he was standing. He then slumped against the tiled wall and closed his eyes, wanting to enjoy the afterglow of his solo session for a few more seconds…

“Brother, if you don’t abandon the bathroom in the following minute, fully dressed and ready, I’ll drag you out of there myself.”

A self-mocking smile appeared in Dante when hearing Vergil’s impatient threat from the corridor. The Vergil of his imagination had sounded better _and_ hotter, when he replayed in his head the groans that his brother had been exhaling while fucking in the neighbor room.

“‘Kay, okay, chill out, brother. I’ll be out in no time!”

His smile grew when hearing Vergil’s click of tongue at the other side of the door. After allowing himself another ten seconds of warm water, Dante turned off the shower and stepped out. Drying his hair in that time was impossible, so he contented himself to tie it up with one of the hair bands he had stolen from Trish when he visited her apartment.

It had been a luck that he had decided to hold his vivid imagination back, preferring to wait for the privacy of the shower to allow his thoughts to go wild and make that discomfort go away with a good wank. It wouldn’t have been funny to be caught red-handed because Nero decided to pay him a visit to his room to have that talk.

And damn, what a talk.

Not in a hundred years would he have guessed that Nero was harboring those ridiculous doubts. He wasn’t blind, and during the past days he had felt that there was something troubling the kid. If the circumstances had been different, if he hadn’t known that Nero was aware of his small, dirty secret, he’d have probably overlooked it; probably he wouldn’t have noticed the light stiffness in Nero’s shoulders during some of his interactions with Vergil, or the way Nero unconsciously avoided him after they took place.

However, the circumstances were _not_ normal, and since coming back to the office Dante had been paying special attention to Nero, making sure that the boy wasn’t chewing more than he could handle. So, when seeing how damn tense Nero was that morning, he had decided he couldn’t keep ignoring it.

He had been ready to abandon the place that same day when he had followed Nero to his bedroom. He had been expecting that Nero told him that their new arrangement couldn’t last anymore, and that he had to go. He had tried to relax the mood so that it was easier for the kid to kick him out, because he knew how kind Nero was. For sure he didn’t like the idea of making him leave after insisting that there was no problem with him staying, but having someone who longed after your partner may have turned out rougher for the kid than he had initially thought.

Once again, Nero had managed to surprise him. The kid’s imagination was even better than his, with all those unfounded fears of Vergil ever falling for him; although, to be honest, the fact that Nero considered him a worthy rival had been unexpected, and a little boost to his ego.

Nero had thought that he was joking when saying that he kid was a temptation, but when seeing Nero standing there, eyes closed in a posture that was too open for his own good, he couldn’t help to imagine the face the kid would have shown in case of taking advantage of it; or in case of knowing that, during his alone time in the shower, he had needed to force himself _not_ to remember the sounds that the kid had exhaled while being fucked, since they sounded different from Vergil’s but almost as sexy.

“Three...two…”

Dante cursed when hearing Vergil’s countdown from the corridor, realizing that he had been staring at himself in the mirror without seeing himself for the past seconds. He opened the door when Vergil was saying ‘ _One_ ’, just in time.

“And you’re still naked,” a completely dressed Vergil said with ‘patience’ when seeing him rush out the bathroom in the direction of his bedroom.

“Yep, I am,” Dante answered to his brother, who was leaning his back against the wall next to the bathroom with his arms crossed and a reproaching expression in his face that Dante didn’t see but that could perfectly picture. “So would your Majesty be merciful enough to give me a few more seconds to get presentable?”

“Well, since you asked so nicely: five…four...”

“Jeez, you’ve gotta be kidding me...”

He did manage to abandon his room in five seconds though, all his clothes on with the exception of his coat, that he had only time to grab it.

“God, you’re such a pain in the ass.” Dante protested, starting putting his coat on while Vergil separated from the wall.

“Grab your weapons,” Vergil commented when passing in front of him. “We have work to do.”

“Wait, you wanna go _right now_?” Dante was forced to run the first steps to reach Vergil, who was already climbing down the stairs towards the main floor. “Damn, what’s the hurry? Where are we going?”

“You will know when we arrive there.”

Dante rolled his eyes while following Vergil.

“Damn you and your secrecy.” He grabbed his sword and guns from the desk. “At least you could let me grab a bite before starting your daily exploitation.”

Vergil answered by opening the door of the office.

“I’m afraid that filling your belly will have to wait, little brother.”

Dante sighed with resignation, ignoring his grumbling stomach while abandoning the office after his brother. When he was alone, he had always contented himself with the leftovers of the previous day’s dinner; that, if he had had enough money to buy dinner. Now because of Nero he had got used to decent, tasty breakfasts. Maybe it hadn’t been such a bad thing that Nero had been raised by others. For sure Vergil - or him - would have been a terrible influence in case of having been in charge of raising him.

There was no time for those thoughts to evolve more, which was probably wise. After leading him towards one of the surrounding alleys, Vergil devil triggered and raised in the air, gaining altitude at a fast speed.

Intrigued, Dante did the same. They flew high enough so that the citizens of Red Grave didn’t panic for the presence of two demons riding the sky. He hoped that wherever Vergil was taking him wouldn’t be much farther away. As years passed by, and the more he came to accept his demonic heritage, the time to stay triggered had augmented considerably, but still Dante started to feel tired after a couple of minutes.

“Please, tell me we’ll arrive soon.” Dante said in his distorted voice, after using some extra energy to impulse himself with his wings to put himself at Vergil’s level.

“I guess I overestimated you by thinking that you would deduce it on your own.”

Dante would have replied something to Vergil’s sarcastic remark if they hadn’t reached their destination at that moment. Dante’s eyes opened more while looking at the sight under them. He was so surprised that he didn’t realize that Vergil was returning to the ground until he saw the blue form of his brother flying in a circle under him to perform an elegant landing.

He landed too, although with less elegance, by roughly planting one knee on the ground. He de-triggered while standing up, his eyes fixed on the manor in whose threshold Vergil had stopped.

The fact that the house kept standing after the incident with the Qliphoth was like a miracle, although Dante had a theory. Back then, when he and Urizen fought in that fake scenario where their house was still in one piece, the Demon King refused to listen to his arguments, saying that he had no recollection of that place. However, maybe those memories Urizen claimed not to remember were stronger than he thought, and were the ones who caused him to unconsciously avoid destroying the place that once was his home.

“Okay. I gotta admit that I wasn’t expecting this special episode of ‘let’s revisit our childhood’.” Dante walked inside the house, leaving behind the broken columns that adorned the entrance until reaching the middle of the room. He crossed his arms and looked at Vergil standing in front of the fireplace. “You’ve woken up feeling nostalgic or what?”

As the neat freak he was, Vergil first adjusted the tilted portrait hanging on the wall before turning around to face Dante.

“Not exactly. I only think it was time already to reclaim this house.”

Dante’s eyes opened more before exhaling a surprised laugh.

“And the special episode keeps having twists!” Dante tilted his head to look at Vergil. “So you’re planning to move here? Because I ain’t wanna be a party pooper, but as big as the house is, I think it needs a coat of paint or two.”

“Thank you for the advice, Dante. It would have never occurred to me until you mentioned it.”

“You’re welcome.” Dante chuckled when Vergil half-closed his eyes, clearly unamused when he pretended not having caught his sarcasm. However, when seeing that Vergil was grabbing Yamato with more force, he raised a hand conciliatorily, not wanting to risk to destroy the house even more with a sudden fight. “Okay, okay, now for real: if you’re considering living here, this is gonna need a lot of work.”

Dante suppressed a relieved sigh when Vergil grabbed Yamato in a more casual grip once again, talking next.

“I know, but that’s why you’re here.”

Dante snorted, placing his hands on his hips.

“Verg, I remind you that I hunt demons as a living, so house restoration is a little beyond my expertise.”

“I’m aware, but that’s precisely what we’re going to do today.” Dante frowned with confusion, but he didn’t need to ask anything because Vergil kept talking. “If my assumption is correct, the ruins surrounding the area and the catacombs underground are still infested with demons. Six months ago, V’s lack of strength mixed with his hurry to advance prevented him from dealing with them, and I doubt that you had much time to clean up the place when waking up. So, that’s what we’re going to do today.”

Dante nodded, just before frowning with confusion again.

“And in order to do this, wouldn’t it be better to bring Nero along too? The more gun power we have, the better, right?”

Vergil changed his weight from one leg to the other, clearly uncomfortable with the proposal.

“For the time being, I think it’s better if we handle this on our own.”

‘ _More secrets, yey_!’ Dante couldn’t help to think.

“But why? I don’t get why involving him should be a problem.”

Vergil sighed with impatience, as if Dante wasn’t understanding something obvious that, by the way, was _not_ obvious at all.

“Because I prefer to have something that is worth showing if my intention is to devote our earnings to restore it. And the first step to do that is not having an army of demons prowling close to the basement level.”

An amused smirk slowly appeared in Dante’s face when catching the hidden meaning of Vergil’s words.

“So you don’t wanna that your kiddo sees these old ruins and says that he doesn’t wanna live in them. Okay, I get it.”

Vergil half-closed his eyes.

“That’s your free, inaccurate interpretation. I have never said such a thing.”

“Oh, but I know you, brother.” Dante teased. “I know how badly you take rejection, so it’s very much like you to reduce the chances of Nero refusing to move here.”

“I repeat you that you are twisting my words as you please, and that I have never—”

“But just for the record, I’m sure that you're worrying for nothing.” Dante didn’t realize that some fondness had slipped in his next words, even if some days ago there would have only been bitterness in them. “It’s obvious that Nero would move to the damn Underworld if you asked him, so there’s no way he refuses to do it here if it’s important to you.”

Vergil remained silent, but his next click of tongue mixed with the way he averted his eyes told Dante that his reading of Vergil’s behavior had been flawless. He felt quite proud of it.

“In any case, I presume that I can count with your discretion.”

Dante was already used to Vergil asking favors with threats instead of doing it like a normal person, so he made the zipping-lips gesture with his right hand.

“Don’t worry, brother. My lips are sealed.”

Dante thought that the topic of the house had finished, so he was already extracting his weapon to get to work when Vergil talked again.

“Also, shall I take that you agree with this decision of restoring the manor?”

Dante blinked.

“Oh. I didn’t know that I had something to say in this.”

Dante had always found fascinating Vergil’s talent of calling him dumb without barely changing the expression, a technique that his twin used just right then. 

“And I thought that it went without saying that you’re also an owner of this house, which means that you are in position of giving your personal opinion about its fate. For example, you may be interested in simply selling it. Though in that case, I’m afraid that I would have to convince you of the advantages of having the property for ourselves.”

Dante snorted before scratching the back of his head.

“Verg, I cannot even keep a damn office without filling it with bills or having it destroyed, so thanks, but no. I think you guys will give it a better use by using it as your love nest.”

Dante’s pride for managing to sound cheery and nonchalant despite the tiny pressure of his chest didn’t last much, since Vergil sighed at that moment while rubbing his temple.

“I thought I had made myself clear, but you seem to be a bigger fool than I thought.” Vergil removed his hand from his temple and looked at him again. Then he talked with a slow tempo, as if he wanted to assure that his dumb twin understood him. “Dante, this manor belongs to _all_ the members of the Sparda Family, which also includes _you_. Therefore, I have no intention of appropriating it to myself and Nero. It would not be fair.”

Dante blinked.

“And the twists kept adding.”

“What do you mean?”

“Come on, you talking about doing the fair thing? What has happened with my selfish twin that took what he wanted, including what was not his?”

The ghost of a smirk appeared in Vergil’s face.

“So you still resent me for trying to take your medallion.”

“You can bet I do. You had your own half and still wanted mine, you greedy bastard.”

“I remind you that I asked for it nicely twice, and that you refused both times even after I explained the purpose for such a petition, so it was your fault for being unreasonable.” Dante’s outraged protest died on his lips when Vergil adopted an almost solemn tone before continuing speaking. “However, we aren’t talking about a medallion. We’re talking about our home: the place where we lived, where our parents raised us, and where our mother died trying to protect us with her life. My morals may be lax on occasion, and sometimes I may take possession of things whose owners I consider unfit. But depriving _you_ of your right to live in this house, in _our_ home, is something that I do not wish to do.”

Dante gulped. He had to force a nervous laugh to try to remove the sudden tightness that had appeared on his throat after hearing Vergil’s reply, in particular when Vergil put so much emphasis in that word.

“Careful, brother. If you offer me a room in this fancy manor, I may not ever leave.”

Vergil shrugged.

“If my memory doesn’t fail me, there are several rooms upstairs, so I don’t see the problem in you messing up one of them.”

Dante managed to remove the lump of his throat by humming in understanding. Damn, maybe it would have been easier if Vergil had been reluctant to him living there. No, _for sure_ it would have been easier. After all, he had already assumed that his current lifestyle would end eventually. At some point his old office would be repaired and he would come back to it, recovering his best friends the debts, and worse paid jobs, and unhealthy meals.

Spending so much time with Vergil, seeing him almost every day, and collaborating in jobs so much was something that wouldn’t last; and although he planned to keep in touch, their interactions for sure would be reduced to the times when Vergil decided to call him or accept his calls.

He had accepted it. He had experienced how painful it was to be dragged by the flow of the routine, and he promised to himself that he wouldn’t make that mistake twice. But now, Vergil had talked as if he had taken his presence in the house for granted; as if it was something that he just didn’t mind, but that he looked forward to; as if him forming part of his life was something normal to do.

Once again, he realized how right Trish was. He would never get over Vergil, not when the man kept unconsciously raising his hopes like that, even if he knew that nothing would ever happen between them, and that he _shouldn’t_ seek for anything to happen.

“Let’s proceed then.” Vergil’s focused tone proved that he had no idea of the thoughts invading Dante at a moment. Luckily. “If we are efficient, perhaps we can leave the area clean by this afternoon. And before you ask, brother, we’re _not_ stopping this time for a ‘midday snack’.”

Any other day Dante would have protested against that last comment, but fighting without any rest would help him silence those thoughts, so he only answered with an emphatic ‘ _Yes, sir!_ ’ before rushing his step to put himself at Vergil’s level, knowing how dangerous it was to walk behind the man.

After all, it wasn’t the first time that he was about to get a boner because of the sight of those pants adjusting perfectly to Vergil’s ass and legs, which would be rather uncomfortable for the fights waiting ahead.

* * *

As it used to happen when getting himself too invested in a fight, Vergil lost track of time while annihilating the hordes of enemies that prowled under the ground of the manor. It seemed that all the demons that they hadn’t killed six months ago had reproduced during that time, because that quantity was not normal at all.

Despite the inconvenience, Dante and him didn’t have too many issues defeating them. Despite their number, most part of the demons were quite weak, and except a couple of times in which they had ended surrounded, needing to cooperate to leave the confrontation unscathed, they both could handle the fights without having to depend much on each other, focusing on taking care of the side of the room that the other wasn’t controlling.

“Okay, that was the last on my side,” Dante announced from the other side of the room, removing his feet from the head of a fallen caina that he had just shot with one of his guns. “You okay there?”

Vergil snorted softly at the stupidity of the question, shaking Yamato to remove the anteoras blood that had ended stuck on it.

“They were just weaklings,” he said with a hint of disappointment while returning the sword to his scabbard. “So the next Fury that appears is mine.”

Dante laughed and leaned his sword on his shoulder, using his now free hand to shake his index finger while doing a tsking sound with his mouth.

“Sorry, bro, you know the rules: he entered my side, so it was my treat~.”

Vergil rolled his eyes when Dante took his index and middle finger to his forehead in a mocking goodbye gesture before rushing to the next area. Refusing to fall for Dante’s childish provocation, he took his time reviewing the recently cleaned up area, making sure that they hadn’t left any room behind pending to check.

Dante’s taunts mixing with the gunshots and slices of demon’s flesh could be heard from some meters away. Vergil sighed. He wasn’t surprised that Dante had forgotten that their goal was to make the area safe, not having fun, but well, he could always punish him later with a one-on-one confrontation.

He crouched on the floor to examine some crystalized orbs that one of the fallen enemies had left behind. He was grinning to himself at the perspective of a new fight with Dante when a loud tremor reached his ears, followed by Dante shouting a curse.

Vergil immediately tensed, grin disappearing from his face. He had battled Dante enough times to distinguish his shouts in battle, and _that_ kind of curse was one that presaged that the man could be in actual trouble. He quickly stored the orbs in his coat and stood up to enter the adjacent area.

His hunch turned out to be correct. Dante was currently dealing with a behemoth whose size was almost twice than a normal one. The demon was rampaging the area, destroying all the rocky walls around, and although an enemy like that would have not caused Dante any trouble, no matter how massive it could be, the problem was that he wasn’t alone.

A Hell Judecca had also ‘joined the party’, as Dante used to say. The demon was remaining at a prudent distance from the behemoth, summoning even more demons that Dante didn’t have time to deal with. Dante’s efforts were devoted to avoid the lunges of the enraged beast, all while counter attacking the tongue attacks that it was constantly throwing. Needless to say, Dante wasn’t having a single second to spare that allowed him to devil trigger to get the upper hand of the battle.

It only took Vergil a second to analyze the situation and establish a strategy, consisting on him making the most of the enemies not having noticed his presence yet to Sin Devil Trigger and enter the battle. The ultimate form of his devil trigger could only remain activated a few seconds at most, so he saved them in order to unleash a deathly attack addressed at the Hell Judecca.

The demon was defeated in one blow, and the expansive area of the attack eradicated the several cainas that she had summoned. It wasn’t enough to kill the oversized behemoth but it served to distract the beast, which finally allowed Dante to throw a powerful attack that cut one of the demon’s two tongues.

“Thanks for the assistance, Verg!” He heard Dante say while his sin devil-trigger was deactivated, with the remains of the demons vanishing in the air as thin dust. “Although I had everything under control.”

Vergil clicked his tongue with impatience, observing how Dante took his sweet revenge on the beast by also sin devil triggering. Some time would need to pass until he could trigger again, so he merely observed his brother as this one finished the demon off.

“Did you, really?” He replied to Dante’s previous statement, once the corpse of the behemoth fell into the ground and Dante was back into his human form. “Because you looked about to beg for help.”

Dante chuckled with exhaustion and returned his weapon to the back of his coat to tie his hair again, since his bun had ended quite messed after the fight.

“Sorry, bro, but it takes a little more than that to bring me to my knees.”

Vergil tensed a little when, again, Dante’s cocky words were about to put some images in his head. Lately such a thing happened too much, and he didn’t know why. Dante had always been a foul-mouthed who used innuendos and sentences with double meaning. He had done that a lot during the month they spent in the Underworld, and he had never paid much attention to it.

Perhaps it was the adrenaline after the battle. After all his libido went a little overboard when that happened, so it had to be that. That was the only explanation why his eyes focused on Dante’s chest moving up and down heavily, roaming then through the expanse on Dante’s visible neck and collarbone both shining with sweat, just to finally stop on the hair that Dante’s was tying, which had now the perfect length to run his fingers through it and then take a rough grip of it to—

Vergil averted his eyes to the side and closed them while suppressing a hissed curse, managing to stop that last dangerous fantasy before it fully formed but by a really slim margin.

“Wow, you okay, Verg? You suddenly don’t look too good.”

The tension that was about to invade him when realizing that Dante planned to get closer to check on him changed into alert when, suddenly, another two behemoths, this time of normal size, appeared from the hole that had opened the massive one.

Vergil drew Yamato again, insulting himself for having lowered his guard due to some unnecessary thoughts that, for sure, were the result of his light tired state.

“Oh jeez,” Dante said, also drawing his weapon and adopting a fighting stance next to him. “I think we killed their mommy.”

“It seems so,” Vergil agreed when seeing that the demons looked more enraged than usual. “We better kill them soon so that the happy family is reunited again.”

“Your merciful soul brings me to tears, Verg,” Dante said with irony, nodding with determination. “I guess we can leave the room division game for a later fight.”

“It would be wise indeed.”

“‘Kay then. I’ll take care of the one on the right and you—”

Dante didn’t get to complete his sentence, because apparently the ground where they were standing had taken too much damage by then, and it started to tremble uncontrollably when the two demons started trotting against them.

“Shit, it’s gonna collapse!”

“Great capacity of observation, Dante.”

At any other moment they could have simply triggered to fly to solid ground, but after having used their respective devil triggers scarce minutes ago, their only alternative was to reach the exit before the whole area was destroyed.

They ran shoulder to shoulder, with the ground gradually disappearing under their feet. They reached the exit almost at the same time. Almost. And that brief difference was enough so that it was Vergil who ended closer to the collapsing room, and the one who was attacked by one the behemoths when this one curled his tongue around his body just before starting to fall through the recently formed hole.

Dante recovered fast from the shock, but no matter how good his speed was, in his human form he couldn’t beat gravity, so he was unable to cut the behemoth’s tongue in time before Vergil fell, dragged by the weight of the demon.

“ _VERG—_!”

“Stay there, Dante!” Vergil managed to shout despite the annoying constriction around his chest, interrupting Dante’s worried shout. “I can handle this!”

Vergil soon realized that it was useless to waste his energies by writhing his body to try to escape. The demon’s tongue was too powerful for him to set himself free like that. It was better to wait for the demon to receive the whole impact against the ground and made the most of that moment to liberate himself.

At the end he didn’t need to make use of that strategy though, since not a second had passed since he spoke when he realized that Dante had completely ignored his petition and had jumped behind him as well.

He could catch a glimpse of Dante’s deathly serious expression when the man made the most of the impulse of the fall to dig Rebellion on the Behemoth's open mouth. The beast released Vergil while Dante continued the combo by throwing the Behemoth against the wall.

Thanks to being liberated, Vergil had more control over his landing, which allowed him to avoid some damage even if the impact was still painful. They didn’t have time to catch their breath, since Dante’s attack had caused some more debris to fall with them, so they were forced to go further inside a tunnel in order to avoid being smashed by them.

“Well, I guess we don’t have to worry about the other behemoth,” Dante said breathlessly when the demon that was still alive ended up buried under the rocks.

Vergil didn’t share Dante’s optimism. He was busy gritting his teeth because there was no way for them to easily come back to the higher floors thanks to Dante’s recklessness attack had caused even more damage, and now the hole from where they had fallen wasn’t there anymore.

“So, now that the family is reunited, let’s see what we can find around here—”

“What on earth were you thinking?”

Vergil’s hissed words made Dante, who had been about to continue further inside the tunnel, to give a half turn. Vergil glared at Dante, feeling his urge of initiating a fight with Dante grow when this one shrugged with way too much nonchalance.

“Hey, I told you that the one in the right was mine, so I just took care of it.” Dante ignored his glare and gestured behind him. “And now don’t be grumpy and let’s go. I promise I’ll let you choose the next opponent.”

“ _Don’t_ give your back to me, Dante,” Vergil ordered when Dante was about to turn around. “I haven’t finished talking yet.”

Dante exhaled a light exasperated sigh and turned around for second time before talking with a too calm tone that came out as if _he_ was making an effort to be patient, when Vergil was pretty sure that it was him the one doing it, since there was nothing that he hated more than wasting time unnecessarily.

“Listen, Verg, I know how upset you’re when someone doesn’t follow your lead, but seriously, can’t we leave this for later? Like, after we have found the exit?”

“There wouldn’t be any need of finding an exit if you had done as I told you,” Vergil interrupted Dante again, and this time, his brother did tense, quite much in fact, even if Vergil assumed it was due to the reprimand and nothing else. “Even the dumbest warrior should know that securing a safe exit in a mission is one of the most basic strategies. There was _no_ reason for you to jump. I had everything under control, but now thanks to your stupidity we are going to waste some precious time in these tunnels instead of—”

This time it was him the one who was interrupted when Dante suddenly closed the space between them in order to grab him by the lapel of his coat. It wasn’t the first time that Dante did that when they fought, especially as kids, and in all the times Vergil always snapped Dante’s hands away, not wanting that his clothing ended messed.

Right then, doing that didn’t even cross Vergil’s mind. He was frozen, unable to do nothing but fix his eyes on Dante’s ones, who looked sadder than he had ever seen them look.

“There was no reason for me to jump, you say.”

After repeating that, Dante closed his eyes for a moment while exhaling a laugh that lacked all humor. Again, Vergil was unable to move during the seconds that followed before Dante took a deep breath and brought himself to talk again with a voice that sounded strained for the obvious effort the man was doing in keeping it calm.

“You’re right, you know? For sure you could have defeated these demons without blinking an eye, and I could have waited until you could activate your trigger to leave this place. Simple and easy, as I like it.” Dante’s tone, ‘calm’ until then, gained frustration, as if the man couldn’t control anymore the feelings he harbored inside. “So yeah, because of me we’re gonna waste time, but I prefer spending a damn week kicking out these underground mazes than do _nothing_ and lose you again. _That’s_ why I jumped, you dumbass: because I didn’t do it when I should, and by when I wanted to find you it was too fucking late. I left you behind, and there’s nothing I’ve regretted more in my damn life, so I’m sorry Vergil, but I’m not gonna go through it again. I’m not letting _you_ go through that alone again.”

It had been quite a while since the last time Vergil experienced a silence so charged like the one that fell between them after Dante snarled the last part, as if he wanted to show his determination of keeping that promise.

From a young age, Vergil had strived to become someone who wasn’t easily affected by others. He had learned to behave indifferently to the situations and people surrounding him, discovering very soon that it was the easiest way to keep going. He could count with half of the fingers of one hand the people he truly cared about, and as much as he had tried to deny it in the past, and to fight against it, Dante was among them.

So, while listening to Dante talking, when hearing the desperation that had gradually tinged his brother’s voice, he could _not_ remain unaffected. And before he knew it, he was slowly letting the air that he had been holding the more Dante spoke, showing him once again how foolish he could be.

The silence dragged on from a few seconds, until Dante finally released his coat with brusqueness. It seemed that Dante had just been aware of his own outburst, and regretted it. He patted the lapel twice clumsily, in a useless attempt to remove the wrinkles from it, and used that hand to rub the back of his neck while giving a couple of steps back.

“Can we stay here for a sec?” Dante said awkwardly, now avoiding his gaze. “I could use some rest.”

Dante must have been looking at him out of the corner of his eye because he only moved towards the wall of the tunnel when Vergil nodded once, briefly. Dante leaned his back against the vertical surface and slid to the ground. He flexed his legs and leaned his forearms on his knees, grabbing his hands between them with his eyes focused on the ground between his feet.

Vergil adjusted his coat out of habit and without saying anything he also leaned against the wall next to Dante, but in a standing position, while resting his hands on the top of Yamato.

During the next silence that fell, Vergil took a look at their surroundings. He noticed that the place where they had ended was similar to the one V visited with both Dante and Nero during his way to Urizen, with the exception of all those roots invading the place. It made him remember that conversation that V and Dante had shared, the one that, he thought, had finally cleared the air between them.

Now he realized that he had been wrong. He thought that, the same as him, Dante had made peace with what happened in the past, but the guilt that Dante was experiencing was unmistakable, and familiar. Vergil had spent years feeling it, during all the times that he reviewed what happened to their mother. He used to think that nothing of that would have happened if he had been stronger; if he hadn’t wasted time by playing and fooling around instead of growing up faster; if he hadn’t been human.

Such an opinion had never changed, but establishing some specific objectives had helped him live with that regret. Then, V met Nero, and discovered that, as he had always thought, it was scary to acknowledge certain feelings when you weren’t strong enough, but also that taking the risk was worth it. And then, during Urizen’s final battle, when he was defeated beyond any doubt by Dante, who should have been weaker than him, it was his brother who reminded him that power without purpose was the same as not having it.

Both Nero and Dante had changed his perspective of what was truly important; so, he guessed it was his turn now to help one of them now, and set his brother free from that self-blame spiral where he seemed to be stuck. 

“It wasn't your fault.”

It would have been surprising if Dante accepted his words without protesting, but still the skeptic snort that Dante exhaled put an impatient frown in his face.

“Come on, Verg, white lies don't suit you.”

“Neither does that martyr attitude that you’re now displaying.”

“Hey, let me be the dramatic, dark guy for once, okay? I have the right.”

“No, you don’t have it.” Vergil looked at Dante from above, refusing to let Dante to run away with that pathetic attempt of using humor. “We both did what we had to do back then. There is nothing that you have to regret.”

Dante snorted.

“Maybe you did, but me?” Dante chuckled weakly and shook his head, finally raising his face to look at Vergil with his eyes still showing guilt. “I abandoned you, Vergil. I didn’t go with you when I should.”

Vergil sustained Dante’s gaze before speaking with a definitive tone.

“I didn’t let you.” Dante seemed about to interrupt him at any moment, so he continued. “We’ve already talked about this, Dante. Your presence against Mundus would have changed nothing but suffering the same fate than me. That would be the only difference, so it would have solved nothing.”

“Maybe, but maybe not. You can’t know that for sure.”

“I do. You didn’t face Mundus: I did. And I know for a fact that we did not have the strength to defeat him then.”

“Alright, but we had it in Mallet. If I had managed to liberate you, if I had known who you were, we could have teamed up then, we could have fought together, but I did nothing of that. I—” Dante gulped before hitting the back of his head against the wall. “Damn, _I killed you_.”

Vergil felt tempted to hit Dante with Yamato when his brother still refused to listen to reason, holding on to that topic that he also thought closed by then.

“Alright then, in that case perhaps I need to stab you again to prove you that I’m not a ghost then.”

“Damn, you know what I mean, asshole. Maybe you didn’t die _die_ , but if I had recognized you—”

“That option _never_ existed.” Vergil cuttingly said, making Dante’s eyes open more. “I spent years trapped in an existence that was no longer mine; an existence that behaved as it pleased, that _thought_ as it pleased, except during the scarce occasions in which I could wake up just to condemn the demon who had stripped any control or will from me.” Vergil half-closed his eyes in a threatening way. “How can your ego be so big to think that you had a chance of recognizing me when _I_ was unable to do it?”

He had seen Dante looking dumbfounded before, but probably this was the time the man looked more stupid than ever. Still, he was far from feeling annoyed by it. Actually, it was perhaps the first time that seeing Dante’s shocked state provided him with relief instead of impatience.

“Okay, first you want to be fair with the house ownership, and now you say you don’t resent me for killing you.” Dante exhaled a chuckle of disbelief. “Damn, since when have you become such a softie?”

Vergil clicked his tongue, but again, he felt glad when hearing that familiar joking tinge back in Dante’s words.

“I have not, but I cannot find a proper reason to keep resenting you.” Vergil hesitated, as every time that the opportunity to speak his thoughts was presented, until he realized that probably there wouldn’t be a more suitable moment to do it. “After all, you finished what I started. You defeated the bastard who betrayed our father and who got our mother killed. So whatever wrong you ever did to me, you long amended it after avenging our family.”

Vergil was a little disappointed when the even more dumbfounded expression that he was expecting to see in Dante’s face never appeared. His brother simply stared at him weirdly, as if he was seeing him for the first time, and then exhaled a deflated laugh before hiding his face on his crossed arms resting on his knees.

When a few seconds passed and Dante hadn’t said anything yet, Vergil grew impatient. For a moment he thought that maybe Dante had had the nerve of falling asleep while being in the middle of a conversation. It wouldn’t be the first time such a thing happened. As kids, Dante was the annoying kind of brother who suddenly woke him up in the middle of the night to talk about random stuff, just to fall asleep when Vergil was invested enough in the conversation.

But Dante wasn’t asleep, something that Vergil verified when Dante exhaled a deep sigh before talking again.

“I love you, Vergil.”

Vergil’s heart stopped for an instant when hearing the raw intensity that Dante’s whispered words had carried. After the initial stupor, he rapidly told himself that Dante was talking from a fraternal point of view. His brother had always been the more open twin after all, the one who could easily express his affection to their mother and him without feeling the least embarrassed about it.

However, hearing those words that he automatically associated with Nero now coming from Dante’s lips felt...strange. Perhaps not in an entirely bad way, but he decided that it would be wiser to forget about it, as every time that he experienced something that he could not logically explain.

“Well, if you do, I hope that you prove it to me by following my orders to the letter in the next battle.”

His tone came out brusquer than intended, which perhaps was the motive why Dante started to laugh, this time without any pretense.

“Sir, yes, sir!” He joked, raising his face to offer Vergil a smile that, again for unknown reasons, made Vergil's heart skip a little bit. “Mind giving me a hand?”

Vergil realized then that Dante had raised his right hand so that Vergil helped him stand up, something that he did after muttering a reproaching ‘ _Lazy_ ’.

“For your sake, I hope that it doesn’t take us a week to leave this place.” He warned once Dante was on his feet again, stretching his arms above his head.

“Of course not!” Dante finished the stretching rolling his shoulders twice and then winked at him before signaling at himself with his thumb. “I have an awesome sense of direction, so we’ll be out in a couple hours at most!”

It took them almost the entire day to come back to the surface, but Vergil was surprised when he had to put some effort into looking angry with Dante during all the time that they spent together. Because it may have been a total waste of time, but for some reason, it didn’t feel as annoying as it should.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whenever the twins are involved, their interactions make the chapter grow longer xD  
> Also... Dante confessed!!...Kind of xD What a pity that Vergil didn't get the true meaning hehehe.
> 
> For the ones missing Nero, don't worry: he will appear again in the next chapter. And also, even if there are more Vergil-in-denial coming, I promise he won't keep being like that for muuuch longer <3 :)


	10. A little push

Nero knew that something had happened between his father and uncle during his brief absence.

He didn’t know what exactly, since the only thing that Dante and Vergil had commented was that they had gone to clean Red Grave undergrounds while he was in Fortuna; however, whatever it was, it had made them be even closer than they were before, even if Nero was pretty sure too that neither of them had even noticed it.

Probably someone who didn’t know Dante and Vergil as much as he did wouldn’t see anything different in the twins’ interactions. They kept arguing more than speaking, being it for who used the bathroom first or who had killed more challenging enemies when they were out to patrol the area, and their rivalry kept being there, ready to come afloat whenever one of them carried the teasing too far.

However, something had changed. That sibling camaraderie that had settled between them after the incident with the Qliphoth had evolved. Now, there was undeniable chemistry, not to mention the more and more frequent feathery touches that kept happening here and there: like Dante patting briefly Vergil’s back when passing next to him, or Vergil settling his hand on Dante’s shoulder to catch his attention when the man had fallen asleep on the desk or the sofa with a magazine on his face.

Nero had needed to bite his tongue on more than one occasion not to say anything about the matter. In particular, he had needed to hold back that impulse the day he came back, when waking up from his afternoon nap just to find Vergil sitting on the armchair and Dante giving him a shoulder massage. Of course, they were arguing, with Vergil complaining of how little skilled Dante was and Dante saying that he was an ‘exigent prick’, but while observing them in silence from the middle of the stairs, Nero had seen how his uncle and father’s eyes kept diverting to their respective mouths.

He wouldn’t have been surprised in the least if they had kissed right then and there, and therefore Nero decided that it was time to find out where Vergil stood.

The time he had spent on his own in Fortuna - at night, when the kids were finally asleep, and he could actually hear his own thoughts - had helped Nero clear his mind. That background fear that had been accompanying him after discovering Dante’s feelings for Vergil wasn’t there anymore. To be honest, he was a little surprised at his own good predisposition to accept the possibility of Vergil loving someone else than him. He didn’t know if it had something to do with him not being as possessive as Vergil was, or if the fact that Dante was that ‘someone else’ had made him be more open to the idea.

Or maybe everything was simpler. Maybe the reason for his acceptance was that he hadn’t detected any change in Vergil’s attitude in regard to him. Vergil kept being the same exasperating, intolerant man who blamed him for arriving at Red Grave an hour later than he promised he would, and also the same man who kept spooning him from behind at night when thinking that he was already asleep.

It was obvious that Vergil’s feelings for Dante, whatever they were, weren’t going to affect how the man felt towards him, so if his hunch turned out to be correct and Vergil loved Dante in more than a brotherly way, he was sure that he would be okay with it.

The problem lied on how to be sure of Vergil’s feelings. He couldn’t ask his father directly. Vergil could be suspicious if he did that, and Nero didn’t want to risk that Dante’s hidden crush was brought to light. After all, as sure as he could be about his theory, it was still a hunch, and if Vergil wasn’t on the same page that Dante, that awkward situation that Dante had been trying to avoid from the start could end up happening, so he had to be careful about how to approach the situation.

It was three days after Christmas when Nero came up with a plan safe enough to prove his theory. That morning, he showered after Vergil and Dante - as usual - and joined them downstairs. It was being a calm Monday so far. Dante was taking a morning nap on the sofa, waiting for Vergil to finish reviewing their pending jobs on the desk to decide what they were going to do that day. If things went as usual, in five minutes at most Vergil would say a definitive ‘ _Alright_ ’ and proceed to explain the schedule for the day. Then Dante would protest a little to poke his brother, and after some more arguing-flirting, they would get to work.

Nero knew how badly Vergil reacted when his plans were affected by something external, so he decided to play his cards before his father got too invested in finishing them.

“Hey, I’ve been thinking…” Nero was about to roll his eyes when seeing the way Dante raised the magazine from his face to look at him with a goofy expression that made clear what the man was thinking. “Come on, man, that joke is too poor even for you.”

Dante chuckled and straightened his position on the sofa, setting the magazine aside.

“Sorry, but I cannot come up with better jokes so early in the morning.”

A loud click of tongue was heard from the desk.

“No wonder that your business goes wrong if 8 a.m. is early for you, little brother.” Dante didn’t have time to reply to Vergil’s intervention, since the man turned his attention to Nero then. “What were you going to say?”

Nero felt some nervousness with what was coming, but he was glad when it didn’t slip in his next comment.

“I’ve just realized that with the division of jobs we’re making, you both are getting to fight more demons that I do.” He planned to keep talking, but he should have known that it would be too much for Vergil not to criticize his criteria.

“I’m afraid that such a thing is inevitable, son, given your insistence on accepting irrelevant jobs or let yourself be dragged by that craftswoman or ex-fiancée.”

“Yeah, yeah, dad, I know we’re never going to agree on what ‘irrelevant’ means here,” Nero said with resignation, remembering all the arguments that appeared when Nero insisted on helping people for free. “And I’m not complaining: I just say that I would like to fight powerful demons at least once a week, not to lose my touch, you know?”

“Well, sorry for bringing the bad news, kid, but in our last patrols there weren’t many demons like those,” Dante commented then. “So unless you want to go demon hunting for real, I doubt you can find a good challenge.”

Nero nodded. Now it was the moment to set his plan into motion.

“You’re right, but they don’t need to be _complete_ demons, you know?”

The silence that followed his comment was full of surprise, until Vergil broke it with a soft chuckle.

“I believed you had grown tired of our sparring sessions, Nero.”

Vergil’s ironic comment made Nero snort before smiling.

“That’s because you don’t differentiate between ‘sparring’ and ‘fighting to your last breath’, but now I know it, I’m down for it.”

Dante laughed at his determined tone.

“That’s the spirit you have to show when fighting Verg if you don’t wanna die.” Dante crossed his arms and looked at him with curiosity. “And who would you like to fight? Vergil, me…” Dante’s smile evolved into a mocking one, “...Or you think that you can handle us both?”

Nero’s lower stomach tightened briefly when Dante said the last sentence. For once, it seemed Dante hadn’t said it with any double meaning at all, and the fact that he had taken it as such made a blush of embarrassment to creep up his neck. Thankfully the coat should be enough to cover it.

“I think one will be good to start. And about whom, well...” Nero adopted his best casual tone before finishing the sentence while looking alternatively at them with an innocent, curious look, “...who did you say it was the strongest?”

Nero had to hold back a triumphant smile when Dante and Vergil answered his question at the same time with a confident ‘ _Me_ ’. Both Sparda stared at each other in disbelief before frowning, again with an impeccable timing.

“Dante, have you forgotten that if it wasn’t for Nero, you would have died in our last confrontation?”

“Nope, I haven’t, but that only means that we are tied right now.”

“No, we are _not_. We were tied when returning from the Underworld, but since the last battle resulted in _my_ victory, we can assume that I am the strongest.”

“Mm you sure of it? Because if we count my battles against Urizen, I won two and you only one, which means that _I_ am the strongest.”

“And should I remind you that you ended in a one-month coma after the first one? That battle should count as more than a victory.”

“Oh, it seems like someone needs to cheat to have the upper hand.”

“Hey, hey, hey, keep calm both of you,” Nero raised his hands to pretend to ‘calm’ the situation, although his intention was to throw more wood to the fire. “Look, it was just an idea, okay? Besides, it’s not as if you have to prove anything, you know? Both of you are pretty strong and that’s all that matters—”

And as expected, his ‘conciliatory’ comment caused both Vergil and Dante to stand up at the same time, still throwing daggers at each other. He was amazed at how easy to manipulate those two could be by attacking their pride. He had to take note of that not to do the same himself because seen from outside, it was way too childish.

“Worry not, Nero. We are going to decide it right now.”

“Hell yeah, you can bet we are.”

Nero made sure to look credibly shocked and not beyond satisfied when his fool father and uncle took a grip of their respective weapons before approaching the door of the office. He then pretended to recover and blocked the path to the exit, drawing Dante and Vergil’s attention to him once again.

“Okay, okay, wait a second. If you’re doing this, we’re gonna need some basic rules.”

“Rules?” Dante said with confusion while Vergil sighed with impatience.

“Nero, if you are afraid that we kill each other—”

“No, what I’m afraid is that you go too far and need to spend the whole day recovering from your wounds, leaving me with all the dirty job,” Nero interrupted, causing Dante to scratch the back of his head with embarrassment while Vergil pursed his lips, which in Vergil-language meant that the man knew Nero was right but wasn’t willing to admit it. “If you wanna solve the matter with a fight, so be it, _but_ the conditions to win will be to bring the opponent to the ground, _without_ shedding any blood.”

“What?” Dante exclaimed, while Vergil’s frown told him that he didn’t like those conditions one bit. “Come on, kid, that’s too family friendly even for you—”

“Do you know how damn difficult it is to remove blood stains?” Nero interrupted Dante with his best pissed tone, that sounded convincing enough to make Dante and Vergil go mute. “No, neither of you know, because _I’m_ the one in charge of it. And if you stain your clothes while doing a job, that’s fine, _but_ like hell if I’m going to do it due to a war of fragile egos. So, you have two choices: you two fight outside without shedding blood, or you do it naked not to dirty your clothes, make your pick.”

Nero’s definitive words made Dante curse before laughing, while Vergil looked at him with an expression that was half-annoyed but also a little amused.

“It seems that someone has woken up in a commanding mood.”

The glint of Vergil's eyes didn’t go unnoticed by Nero, who realized that perhaps _that_ was Vergil’s subtle way of saying that he wouldn’t mind seeing that behavior at a later time.

“Wow, save those bedroom eyes for your son later, brother,” Dante jokingly said, settling his sword on his shoulder before palming Nero’s arm with his free hand. “And you Nero, be ready to console your daddy in the gentlest way, since I plan to wipe the ground with his ass.”

A fast string of ‘ _Hey_ ’s escaped Nero when Vergil looked about to draw Yamato to attack Dante right then in the office. He managed to make them behave until they reached the alley behind Devil May Cry, but once they were hidden from other people’s glances, Vergil and Dante started attacking each other without wasting a second.

Nero smiled to himself while sitting back on his heels next to one of the walls, observing with attention the confrontation between Vergil and Dante. The place that they were using as their sparring zone was the same alley where he and V had their first fight. It seemed like an eternity had passed since that day. At that moment the invoker had made him fight in order to prove to him the necessity of him growing up and getting stronger, and now he was doing the same with Vergil and Dante so that they tried to figure out what the hell was going on between them.

It was a pity that there was no one else there with whom he could bet against, because by basing on the rush of adrenaline that both Vergil and Dante were surely experiencing, and the proximity of their faces whenever their swords crossed, he was pretty sure that, that day, it would be a miracle if something else didn’t change between them.

* * *

“What’s wrong, Verg? You can’t throw decent attacks unless you stab someone or what?”

Vergil was aware that after so many fights, he should be used to Dante’s taunts. It was a technique that he had seen his brother use countless times when facing his enemies. In fact, he had found himself thinking more than once how foolish those demons were for falling for such an obvious trick.

However, for some reason, when Dante’s provocations were addressed to him, all that logic disappeared, and he felt his blood pumping whenever Dante doubted his capacity in that joking tone of his.

“You should save your strength, Dante.” He made his sword spin in a gesture that was purely devoted to impress before pointing at Dante with the point of his sword. “It’s not wise for a man of your age to waste his energy through his mouth.”

Dante barked a laugh before stopping Vergil’s next attack.

“Have you forgotten that we’re twins? And that _you_ are the eldest?”

“And still, you are the one who is out of air.”

“And who says that’s not because of your stunning beauty, brother?”

The unexpected comment caused Vergil to stop applying pressure for enough time - less than a second - to give Dante the chance of pushing him backwards. He was about to lose his balance, but he managed to recover his stance fast enough not to fall. Obviously, Dante noticed his brief mistake.

“Wow, that was a close call,” Dante said with a teasing proud tone before turning to look at Nero. “I hope you’re looking forward to have me as your teacher, kid, I don’t think your older man can win—”

Vergil felt a deep satisfaction when his sudden invocation of Beowulf interrupted Dante’s arrogant speech. Dante’s eyes were still opened when he teleported where his brother was. The protest that Dante planned to say died in his throat before fully forming, since the man had to focus on counter attacking Vergil’s [successive, powerful hits](https://youtu.be/e-8v22vHE5Q?t=149). The change of weapons had caught Dante off guard, so he was unable to stop the last kicks, which were insanely fast. A wolfish grin spread on Vergil’s face when Dante was thrown against the opposite wall and the air of his lungs was punched out of him.

“You cheater,” Dante accused in an even more breathless tone. “No one said we could use other weapons.”

Vergil raised an eyebrow, continuing his feet dance with his punches raised in the air.

“No one said we could _not_ use them.”

Dante looked at Nero again, as if searching for support, but Nero simply shrugged with an amused smile, taking Vergil’s side. Vergil’s grin widened, thinking that he should compensate the boy later for such good behavior.

“Alright, Verg,” Vergil rapidly turned his attention to Dante’s again, in alertness for the fake calm tone the man was using. “If that’s how you want to play…”

It was Vergil the one in being taken by surprise when, instead of trying to summon other weapons as he had done, Dante devil triggered in the blink of an eye and launched against him, destroying several bricks in the wall that he used to impulse himself. Vergil didn’t have time to devil trigger before Dante grabbed his arms to throw him against the ground, pinning him against it. Vergil hissed in pain with the impact and glared up at Dante while this one was still in his demonic form.

“You hit the ground first,” Dante said in a triumphant, distorted tone that made Vergil half-close his eyes menacingly.

“And you dare to call me a cheater, brother?”

Dante laughed and slowly de-triggered, his chest going up and down heavily.

“It was you the one who started, big bro. Which means…” Dante leaned down until their noses were brushing, “...that it’s a fucking fair win.”

If the circumstances had been different, Vergil would have refuted that statement. He would have managed to come up with several explanations to justify why he had followed the rules while Dante had gone against them.

However, since the moment Dante was about to eliminate the distance between them by leaning down in an almost sensual way, Vergil found himself unable to let out another single word.

He didn’t know if it was the warm and pleasant weight of a strong, taut body pressing against him, or if Dante snarling that particular word had just pressed the right buttons; but, whatever the reason, he found himself devoting every bit of energy he had to stop himself from getting hard.

Vergil was pretty sure that he had kept his expression imperturbable, but maybe Dante had managed to read those thoughts that he was also trying to suppress, because the man’s eyes opened slightly more for a moment. Then, as fast as he had been thrown to the ground, Dante concealed a gulp and stood up, separating from him as if his contact was something that he now wanted to avoid.

The awkwardness of the silence that fell between them while Vergil also raised to his feet was impossible to miss, and also the tension surrounding Dante’s body when the man cleared his throat and scratched the back of his head.

“Well, uhm, since it seems that we both have cheated one way or the other, maybe we could leave it in a draw, don’t you think, kid?”

Vergil’s heart skipped a beat when hearing Dante. He had completely forgotten that Nero had been there all the time. That sudden realization made him clench his jaw while grabbing Yamato with more force.

Nero must have answered with a nod while Vergil avoided both his son and brother’s eyes with the excuse of returning Yamato to his scabbard, because at that moment Dante talked again.

“So, if you don’t mind, I think I’m gonna kick the streets for a bit. All this fighting has left me wanting for more. For more battles, I mean. So... Yeah, see you later, ‘kay?”

Dante didn’t give them any time to say anything to stop him. His brother devil triggered again and disappeared, leaving the awkwardness of the previous silence behind. In fact, Vergil noticed it even stronger than before, to the point that he was tempted to use Dante’s same excuse and disappear as well.

The only thing that prevented him from doing that was Nero, who talked at that moment with a calm tone that surprised Vergil.

“Let’s go back.”

The naturalness of Nero’s comment made Vergil’s tension vanish a little. He nodded and started walking towards the office next to Nero, in an unexpected silence that was uncharacteristic, but not uncomfortable.

Once inside, Vergil’s eyes stopped on the magazine that Dante had left on the sofa, and he felt once again the necessity of being alone. He announced Nero that he was going to take a new shower. Just like Dante before, he didn’t wait for the boy to answer before climbing up the stairs.

Five minutes later he was already inside the shower. He leaned his hands on the wet tiles and let his head fall a little backward. He closed his eyes and let the cold water run down his face, hoping that the low temperature helped him push once and for all the thoughts that Dante’s presence had brought to him.

He gritted his teeth with frustration, trying to guess what was wrong with him.

Before, he had tried to justify himself by saying that the adrenaline of the battle had something to do with his reaction. After all, it wasn’t the first time that a good battle made his libido go a little out of control. Before meeting Nero, he used to deal with it by searching the first soul willing enough to satiate his urges; and when Nero passed to form part of his life, it had been his son the one who had always offered himself pliantly, being in to be in the receiving end of his passion, or to be the one pounding into him against the sheets until aroused grunts were the only coherent thing escaping Vergil’s mouth.

So, it had happened before. Him getting excited after a battle wasn’t anything new. However, it was the first time that Dante had been present in his thoughts in such a way.

Since agreeing to enter a relationship with Nero, the boy had been the only person at the end of his desire; but before, when Dante had caged against the floor, when being close enough to his brother to catch his natural scent mixed with the sweat of the battle, when feeling his brother’s breath a thread away from his own, he had really needed to placate the impulse of grabbing Dante’s arms, revert their positions, and—

Vergil felt his cock harden again against his abs. He exhaled an exasperated sigh and leaned his forehead against the wet tiles, with his hands turning into fists on either side of his head. He took a deep breath, refusing to release himself. He was the owner of his body, of his mind, and he refused to be controlled by their stupid whims.

He spent several minutes taking deep breaths and blocking his traitor thoughts, and at the end, his cock softened again. While washing himself, he reviewed the schedule of the day; then, when exiting the shower, he planned the one of the following week; and when he abandoned the bathroom, with a towel around his waist and his clothes on his hand, he had begun with the week after the next.

His impeccable plan to stop himself from having any kind of irrational, illogical thoughts lasted until he reached the bedroom and saw Nero sitting on the bed, waiting for him.

Vergil tensed. The last time that Nero had looked like wanting to ask something that Vergil wasn’t ready to answer was when V was around. At the time, Nero’s insistence had led them to an argument, and Vergil was expecting that this situation wasn’t different.

This time, Nero didn’t say a word. His son simply looked at him in silence for some seconds before standing up, approaching him next. Vergil half-closed his eyes with suspicion when, with unexpected delicacy, Nero took his clothes from his hands and placed them on the closest chair, returning to him next in order to kiss him.

Vergil was still tense, still expecting that Nero stopped to ask, but when he felt Nero’s tongue entering his mouth, intensifying the kiss, he relaxed and kissed back.

They spent almost a minute making out. Vergil then felt Nero’s hands fumbling with his towel. He let Nero drop it into the floor and groaned when Nero wrapped his hand around his cock to start stroking it, still slow but with the firmness he liked. He rewarded Nero by reaching for the boy’s zipper to lower it, together with Nero’s underwear until his cock sprang free. Their mouths were still connected when Vergil mimicked the boy’s actions and started masturbating him.

The more their hands moved, the more heated their kisses turned. Vergil was considering accelerating things and pushing Nero against the bed to take the matters into his hands when the boy separated from him.

Vergil frowned when Nero approached the door. He thought for a brief shocked instant that Nero was going to leave, but Nero only closed it before coming back to his side.

The boy recaptured his mouth once again and led him until his back touched the wooden door. Vergil’s heartbeat sped up when, still without spelling a word, Nero bended his body a little while hooking his hands on the back of Vergil’s thighs. Nero then straightened his position in a fluent motion, raising him at the same time so that Vergil’s legs wrapped around his waist.

Vergil’s eyes flared with anticipation when realizing what Nero was planning to do. His mouth half-opened in a mute groan when the boy aligned his erection against his ass and started pushing inside. No preparation was needed. It hadn’t passed that much since the last time Nero fucked him after all.

The advantage of having demonic heritage was that it came with some extra strength, so even if Nero had only a quarter of demonic blood in his veins, it was enough so that he could build up a satisfying tempo of steady but deep up-and-down thrusts that had Vergil digging his fingers on Nero’s shoulders.

It was probably the first time that they had sex without talking at all, ragged grunts and punctual gasps mixing with the slapping sound of their skins rhythmically connecting, although the fact that Nero was barely letting Vergil’s mouth go perhaps had something to do with their scarce dialogue.

Vergil always needed to order Nero to speed up at some point, to go rougher, to let himself loose. That afternoon he didn’t need to. Just when Vergil was feeling the urge of ordering Nero to stop holding back, Nero took a good grip of his ass with both hands and slammed his hips harder, fucking him with more vigor until the wooden door was creaking in warning.

The new pace made Vergil lean the back of his head against the door while his eyes went half-mast. The way he arched his neck offered Nero the opportunity to mark it. Now, every thrust that his son delivered was aimed at his prostate, which caused those grunts that until then Vergil was exhaling under his breath to sound louder.

An aroused curse finally escaped Nero with the new noises Vergil was making, followed by a whine when Vergil made the most of Nero abandoning his skin in order to dig his own canines in the side of Nero’s neck.

As the seconds dragged on, Nero’s thrusts turned more and more erratic, and Vergil felt his cock leaking pre-cum for the continuous rubs of his member against Nero’s clothed abs. From then on, it didn’t take much until a strained ‘ _I’m_ _gonna come’_ escaped Nero’s lips.

Vergil himself was close, but he managed a commanding ‘ _Pull_ _out_ ’ that Nero obliged. Their cocks were aligned when they both came, staining Vergil’s clenched stomach and the bottom of Nero’s now sweated t-shirt.

Vergil’s arms were still around Nero’s shoulders when Nero dropped forward, pressing his whole weight against him. Both of their chests were going up and down in heavy, matching breaths. Nero was still sustaining him, so Vergil moved his legs with the intention of stepping on the floor. His eyes opened more when Nero didn’t let him complete the action and started walking towards the bed while carrying him.

“Nero, I can walk by myself.”

He tried to sound reproaching, but his tone came out less strict than intended because the orgasm was still lingering on him. As a result, Nero succeeded in taking him to the bed.

The necessary cleaning was done and Vergil lay on his side and under the covers, with Nero spooning him from behind for once. The boy had removed his upper clothes, so Vergil could feel the boy’s more accelerated heartbeat against his bare back.

A few more minutes passed, and when seeing that Nero had no intention of breaking the silence, Vergil exhaled a deep, slightly impatient sigh.

“Aren’t you going to ask?”

“Nope.”

The answer was so fast and final that a genuine chuckle abandoned Vergil’s lips before he could hold it back. Perhaps his son was more twisted than he gave him credit for and had made love to him with the purpose of getting him relaxed enough to talk. In one way or another, it had helped him blow some steam, and release the tension that his battle with Dante had caused, so he wasn’t going to punish him for it. For the time being, at least.

“Well, it’s impressive given your talent in meddling in other people’s business.”

Nero snorted from behind.

“Sorry, but you’re the only person whose business I care about, and that’s just because you are a secretive jerk.”

“Then, what is stopping you from intruding now? You know there is something I am not telling you.”

The tone Nero adopted when talking next wasn’t exasperated or resigned as Vergil was expecting, but accepting.

“Yeah, I know. But I’ve learned the hard way that pressing you for answers when you are inside your shell isn’t always a good idea. So it’s okay if you don’t wanna tell me what’s wrong, as long as you don’t forget that whatever you need, I’m here for you.”

Vergil felt his heart skip a beat, recognizing those words.

“And what if I happen to need something that has nothing to do with you?” he asked after some more seconds of carefully thinking, since he didn’t want to reveal something that he wasn’t even sure about.

Again, Nero’s answer came swiftly.

“It depends. Having that ‘something’ will make you happy?”

Vergil’s heart skipped another beat at the question. It looked as if Nero knew exactly what was going through his head; as if his son was aware of the mess Dante was causing in his head, and that he wasn’t talking about ‘something’, but ‘someone’.

However, he couldn’t risk talking openly about it yet, not until he himself knew where he stood.

“Perhaps. I don’t know yet.”

His suspicions about Nero knowing more than what he was letting show were confirmed when, for the third time, Nero’s answer was immediate.

“Then figure it out. And if it makes you happy,” Nero got closer to him and enclosed his arm around Vergil’s waist more tightly, “then don’t fucking doubt it and go after it.”

Despite the brusqueness of the last sentence, Nero’s comment had carried that familiar warmth that Vergil had dared to get used to.

Vergil took a deep breath then and closed his eyes. He then placed his hand on the top of the one Nero had rested on his stomach.

No more words were needed to be spoken while Nero interlaced their fingers together, because Vergil had the same certainty that V had back then: that no matter the choice he decided to make, he could count on his son to keep being by his side.

So now, it was in his hands to find out what he was exactly feeling for his stupid brother: a fleeting infatuation that would eventually disappear, or something more complicated that was fated to stay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the ones who are wondering if something is ever going to happen between Vergil and Dante, I promise that we're almos there xDD But I think a couple of chapters are needed to that Vergil discovers/acknowledges his feelings, or otherwise I feel it would be too sudden.
> 
> Also, from now on the updates will be slower than usual since I have another WIP right now, but I have this entire story planned so I don't plan to abandon it <3 <3 :)


	11. Unraveled secrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long chapter ahead because we have the POV of the three Sparda boys ;)

At least another year would have to pass until Red Grave’s Cathedral, one of the most emblematic places that attracted tourism in the city, was restored to its usual glory. The poor building had stood quite a heavy damage six months ago, courtesy of the Qliphoth and specifically Goliath, so the whole area would be restricted as long as construction work was still ongoing.

But of course, some yellow and black tape wasn’t enough to stop Dante when this one landed at the top of it in his triggered form.

The wind was stronger than usual up there, and it was also colder because of the altitude. Dante guessed that he should be grateful for his demonic heritage. If he were 100% human, he would be freezing his ass off while sitting there. Lucky for him he wasn’t, so he could spend all the time he wanted sitting at the edge, enjoying the views of the city.

Dante exhaled a deep sigh and flexed his right leg in order to lean his forearm on it. He didn’t know how much time he had spent there; maybe an hour or two. He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand and closed his eyes, trying to push away that image that had been assaulting him since abandoning the fight: Vergil, pinned on the ground under him, and looking up at him in the exact same way that he had fantasized about so many fucking times in the darkness of the night.

“I must be senile already,” Dante muttered, imitating without noticing his brother’s habit of talking to himself when being alone.

He was sure that whatever he saw in Vergil’s gaze, it hadn’t been real. For sure the light had played a trick on him or something, and his mind, encouraged by the posture that they both had ended in, had done the rest. He was trying to self-convince himself of that, but shit, with the chemistry that had been transpiring between him and Vergil during the past days, it was being difficult not to let his imagination run wild.

Dante sighed again and opened his eyes. He stared at the palm of his left gloved hand for a moment before clenching it into a fist. He smiled when feeling the contact of that scar, that should have healed long ago, against the leather.

He had come to accept that he would always have that mark. However, after his last conversation with Vergil, he suspected that that sting that he had sometimes felt, for sure more psychological than physical, would gradually vanish.

The time that they both had spent in the Underworld had made Dante realize that things between them had improved. With the split of Vergil’s human and demonic halves, his brother’s perspective had been affected, mainly because of V, allowing him to re-think what was worthy to keep and fight for.

Proof of that was the way Vergil had worried about him during those months he was absent, or when he had asked him to stay in the same place as him, first in the office and then in the house that once was their home.

However, despite witnessing those unconscious glimpses of the affection Vergil felt towards him, Dante had assumed that there was still part of Vergil that would never stop hating him for what happened, and that would never forgive him for those times when he failed to stay by his side when he needed it the most.

He hadn’t expected to have been forgiven, to hear Vergil say that he didn’t resent him anymore. It felt as if an old weight had been removed from his shoulders, and the relief that Dante had experienced was so big that he had confessed in the spur of the moment.

Of course, Vergil had interpreted his words as an exaggerated expression of his affection, without getting the true meaning; and although some time ago he should have been glad for it, during the past three days he had found himself thinking about dangerous ‘what-ifs’ that made him regret not having been _even more_ direct.

What if those glances that Vergil was more prone to steal from him, when the man thought he wasn’t watching, had more meaning than he had assumed? What if those last arguments that Vergil had initiated, and which usually ended with them pulling at each other jackets, were just an excuse to have their faces so close? What if his chances to be with Vergil were higher than he thought?

Up till then, he had never thought that Vergil could feel anything for him asides respect for his abilities, or maybe a bit of care for the good old times, and he was fine with it. At the time, he hadn’t felt that he deserved more than that. But now that he knew how Vergil felt, that possibility that had never been plausible for him had come to life.

_“...Vergil wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for you.”_

_“...you were the one who gave Vergil a reason to keep going.”_

“ _...the bond you share, the one that has always tied you together...Shit, nothing can compare to that.”_

A fond smile escaped Dante when remembering Nero’s words. Unlike him, the kid believed that he stood a chance, and what was more: that he deserved it. In fact, Nero had never said that he should keep a secret about his feelings.

_“Damn, Nero, keep saying things like that and I’ll start to believe I have a chance with your old man.”_

_“You have it. So, if someday you grow some balls and finally confess to him, you better be ready, old man, because I’m not planning to renounce to Vergil without a fight.”_

Dante exhaled a low chuckle, realizing that now there was a last reason why he chose to keep those feelings to himself; a reason that didn’t exist at the start, but that now had become as important as the others: Nero.

If the kid hadn’t been in the equation, probably nothing would have stopped him from confessing to Vergil. For sure he would have surrendered to his urges, as it was about to happen during that time that he was about to confess to V.

But now, the idea of having to fight Nero for Vergil...He didn’t want it. The kid had always been there for Vergil, and later for him, working hard to make sure that everything worked between them.

And also, there was something quite vital that, in his delusional fantasies, he had forgotten: Vergil loved Nero. Vergil was already happy with Nero. It would be easier for him that Nero would be a prick that he could kick out without remorse, but he wasn’t. He truly loved his father, and it was the other way around.

So, if Vergil already had everything he wanted, why the hell was he wasting time thinking about changing things?

It was frustrating, but he had been late. Nero had beaten him fair play, because thanks to him, Vergil didn’t need him in the way _he_ needed Vergil in order to be happy. Whatever he had thought to detect in Vergil, for sure it didn’t mean what he wanted it to mean.

Again, he concluded that sibling love was the only thing he should expect from Vergil. As the honorable man that he was - or that, at least, he wanted people to believe he was - he vowed to stop having any kind of wishful hopes, and reading too much into Vergil’s reactions, and ever thinking about affecting the life Vergil had come to have.

However, as strong as he wanted his resolve to be, there was nothing he could do about his physiological reactions; in other words, his battle against Vergil and their last proximity had left him horny as fuck, and he needed to do something with that pent-up sexual frustration before it exploded at the worst possible time.

“Well then, it seems that my earnings will be _wasted_ again,” Dante said with self-mocked resignation before standing up with a huff.

He jumped down the Cathedral, destroying a little more the ground with his landing. After straightening his position again, he placed his left hand on his right shoulder and rolled the last while walking. He hoped that that club was opened already and that the girls were working, although he planned to spend the whole afternoon drinking there anyway, until two succubi - _two_ , this time he wasn’t going to be that reckless to pay for three - were available.

Dente was already directing his steps towards the nightlife district when his stomach grumbled. It seemed that the perspective of getting laid had awakened his appetite, even if a moment ago he was perfectly fine. Well, there was nothing he could do about it: he had to get some food in his system. A grumbling stomach during sex was unsexy and one of the fastest ways to break the mood.

He sighed while changing his destination. It was a pity because Nero’s cooking was awesome, but he couldn’t return to Devil May Cry yet. He estimated that he would still need a few hours to safely face Vergil. His best option now was going to the commercial district to find a cheap place where he could eat, since he was going to spend a good sum of money in that club…

Dante stopped in his tracks, suddenly remembering something. A smirk appeared in his face, and his eyes shined with renewed determination. Maybe at the end, he would be able to carry out his ‘let’s-get-laid’ plan without wasting as much as he had feared.

* * *

Nero muttered a low curse while sitting on the sofa, his back hunched forward while using a screwdriver in one of his devil breakers. He had spent the last hour trying to fix that little shit, but the more he played with those wires the worse the arm seemed to work. At the end, it seemed that his attempts of avoiding one of Nico’s expensive repairs were going to be fruitless, and that he would need to give the woman a call so that the craftswoman emptied his pocket again.

He gasped in pain when he touched something that he wasn’t supposed to, provoking a little electrical shot that left his right hand numb. He shook it while cursing again. He was about to throw the damn arm at the other side of the room out of frustration when an impatient sigh came from the armchair.

For a moment Nero thought that Vergil’s reaction was due to his not-very-silent repairs, but when looking at his father he saw that the man’s eyes were fixed in the book that he was supposedly invested in reading.

Something was off though. Given Vergil’s reading speed, his father should have finished the book by then, since he had been half through it when sitting there. However, it didn’t look as if the read pages had increased one bit.

Nero carefully left the screwdriver on the table not to make a sound and reclined back with his arms crossed. He observed Vergil in silence. Normally, doing that should have been enough to put Vergil on alert, since his father hated to be stared in such a scrutinizing way - apparently, he was the only one allowed to do that.

This time Vergil didn’t notice, meaning that he had to be lost in some deep thoughts.

When almost a minute had passed and Vergil hadn’t turned a single page, Nero’s theory about Vergil being pretending to read was confirmed.

“Hey,” Nero wasn’t especially brusque when addressing Vergil, but his father’s hand shook while sustaining the book, betraying that the man had been startled nevertheless, “is everything okay?”

Vergil half-closed his eyes.

“Why shouldn’t it be?” Vergil must have realized that he had sounded too defensive because he relaxed his tone while eyeing at the poor state of his devil breaker. “Besides, I should be the one asking that question.”

Nero nodded when Vergil’s eyes returned to his book, refusing to share his thoughts as Nero suspected he would do.

‘ _Don’t worry, Dante will be back soon_.’ He was _very_ tempted to say that, just to see Vergil’s reaction when mentioning his brother. Vergil may be refusing to say what was bothering him, as usual, but it was obvious that his train of thoughts was going in that direction. The sexual tension that had appeared between Vergil and Dante’s after their battle had been so evident that he had held his breath, even if his father and uncle had been too busy fucking each other with their eyes to notice his reaction.

Dante’s hasty leave had prevented anything more from happening, but what Nero saw was enough to convince him that, at the very least, Vergil felt attracted to Dante. Also, the fact that Vergil had spent the rest of the afternoon in a taciturn mood, chewing on the matter, meant that there was probably something else there than pure physical attraction.

Maybe it was a too quick conclusion, but Nero was pretty sure that, by then, Dante’s feelings were more than reciprocated, and that the only reason why Vergil wasn’t doing anything about it was that he didn't know about Dante’s long-time crush.

Nero suppressed a long, frustrated sigh. He knew Vergil well enough to know that the probabilities of Vergil admitting his feelings were close to zero. Not in vain _he_ had needed to confess twice so that the man believed his feelings. For sure Vergil wouldn’t do a thing until Dante showed clear interest, but that wasn’t going to ever happen as long as Dante wasn’t sure of Vergil’s feelings either.

He was sure that they were in the same page again, and Nero was tempted to drop the bomb of ‘ _Dante loves you_ ’ right then. But he couldn’t do that, not yet. He would be betraying Dante’s trust, and before reaching that point, he still could try some more ‘subtle’ things, like dropping a hint here and there, or leaving them alone on purpose. Locking them in the bedroom until they worked things out was an option too, although that solution wouldn’t be very subtle.

Nero was already plotting how he could make the next push when the door of Devil May Cry opened and Dante entered while whistling something, startling both Vergil and him.

“Wow, easy there!” Dante chuckled while shaking his head. “Damn, what a pair of scaredy cats. You almost ended in the ceiling fan.”

“Where have you been?”

It wasn’t the first time that Vergil pried into Dante’s whereabouts to make sure that he wasn’t wasting his earnings - even if this time Nero doubted that _that_ was the motive - and part of Nero hoped that Dante reacted badly to his father’s impatient question so that another argument ensued.

Sadly, Dante seemed to be in a really good mood, because this time he didn’t look very affected by his brother’s controlling personality and continued whistling while approaching the desk.

“Well, all that fighting left me a little hungry, so I went to have a bite.”

Vergil raised an eyebrow, his gaze suspicious while looking at Dante.

“It’s been almost six hours since you left. I assume that you did something else other than filling your belly.”

Dante chuckled again while opening the desk drawer in order to extract the small red box where he kept his saved money.

“Very perceptive, brother.” Dante opened the small box and looked at them with a bright smirk in his face. “Actually, I got a date.”

There was a stony silence in the room, followed by a temperature drop whose source was the armchair that Vergil was occupying.

“A date,” Vergil repeated, his voice studiedly calm. “With whom?”

Dante raised a conciliatory hand, clearly misinterpreting Vergil’s sudden tension.

“Relax, it’s not a succubus,” Nero was surprised when Dante turned to him. “Remember that girl that attended us in the bakery? Well, I visited the place again to go for a dessert and she was there. One thing led to the other and well, I’ll be seeing her tonight.”

“...I see.” Nero knew that the dangerous edge in Vergil’s voice wasn’t addressed to him, but he felt a shiver travel down his spine nevertheless when hearing it and seeing the force Vergil was applying at that poor book. “I guess it’s good news you are not wasting your money for that lady’s company.”

Nero didn’t know how Dante couldn’t notice that there was something wrong with Vergil, but apparently his uncle’s solitary brain cell could only do one task at a time and right then was busy counting the bills that he needed for his ‘date’.

“Yeah, it’s an improvement, although I’ll still need to pay for the night at the hotel.”

“So you don’t expect to spend the night here?”

“Well, if things end going terribly wrong in the dinner, yep, I will; _but_ …” Dante raised his face and signaled at his neck, where a visible hickey had been left, “...by basing on her effusive goodbye, I think everything will go just fine. So you can thank me, lovebirds: you can use any corner of the office for your activities tonight.”

Dante resumed his whistling after saying that playful comment and disappeared upstairs after that in order to take a shower, leaving that awkward silence behind.

Vergil seemed to have become a - grumpy - statue after hearing Dante’s news, but Nero had the feeling that him hinting something about his father’s discomfort for Dante’s date would only bring him trouble and no solutions.

When five minutes had passed and Vergil hadn’t given any signs of stepping out his mute state, Nero stood up and announced that he would get their own dinner ready. Dante must have been looking forward to the date because when, 10 minutes later, Nero finished preparing it he could still hear the sound of the shower.

Vergil didn’t say a word while eating, so the songs that Dante was humming upstairs were sounding as background, turning everything even more awkward. The tension grew so much that at some point Nero was very tempted to yell at Vergil that he stopped pretending to be okay with everything, then to yell at Dante that he grew some balls and confessed, and then at the two of them some more for making him be in the middle.

At the end, he held back the impulse, but he was about to let out a relieved sigh when Dante _finally_ climbed down the stairs, dressed in black as usual but with a t-shirt that wasn’t as loose as the one that he used to wear, and that also left his collarbone way more exposed.

“Well, I’m out.” Dante recovered his coat and winked at them. “Don’t wait up for me.”

“Have fun,” Nero said in automatic mode, just to break a little of the tension surrounding the place, but the look he obtained from Vergil made him almost regret being polite.

By then, they had finished, so Nero proceeded to clear the round table. He wasn’t surprised when seeing that Vergil had barely touched his plate.

Silence dragged on while Nero stored the leftovers of the dinner and then started washing the dishes. Again, he was tempted to break the silence, and go against his instincts that told him it was better if he didn’t address the subject.

At the end, Vergil saved him the trouble of doing that.

“I’m going out for a walk,” Vergil announced while standing up from the round table, causing Nero to tilt his head to look at Vergil.

The man was tense, as if he were expecting that Nero asked something that he was unwilling to answer, as it had happened when they had sex hours ago but, the same as then, Nero had learned when it was better not to press certain matters with Vergil, and _that_ was not the time.

“Okay. Do you want company?”

Vergil relaxed at that, and his tone sounded calmer when answering.

“Thank you, but I would like to enjoy some privacy.” Vergil grabbed his sword and nodded, as every time he left. “I will be back soon.”

Nero observed the door of Devil May Cry open and close for the second time that night.

Less than five minutes later, it did it for the third time.

* * *

It didn’t take Vergil much to find out the place Dante had chosen for his date. Given his brother’s unhealthy obsession for pizza, the chances that the man had chosen an Italian for his dinner were quite high. Also, by basing on the money the man had borrowed and the fact that he was going to need to pay for a hotel room, he couldn’t afford to pick a too expensive place, which had reduced his choice of restaurants even more.

Vergil exhaled a deep sigh from the cafe where he was sitting. It was placed in the opposite street and offered him a perfect view of the window through which Dante was sitting with that woman who couldn’t be much older than Nero, even if her make-up wanted to make it look otherwise.

His brows furrowed when that woman approached her fork to Dante in order to offer him a bite of her food, something that Dante accepted without averting his eyes from her.

Vergil exhaled a deep sigh and took another sip of his coffee to avoid gritting his teeth. He wasn’t sure what annoyed him more: his infatuation with Dante, which by then was impossible to deny, or the fact that he may have been mistaken in deducing that Dante was going through the same.

Until that day, the idea of Dante having that kind of thoughts and feelings towards his persona would have never crossed his mind. However, if there was something that he had learned thanks to V was that, despite his ability to read people, he failed to make the correct conclusions when love was involved.

At some point of their journey, Nero had started to fall in love with V, and the last had been unable to see it at the moment, even if now certain behaviors that Nero had displayed had clearly pointed to it.

Vergil had learned from that, and therefore he had spent the hours that followed his encounter with Nero reviewing each one of the conversations and interactions he and Dante had shared, trying to see if they could be interpreted under a new light.

_“It hasn’t healed.”_

_“No, it hasn’t.” Dante grabbed his left wrist with his free hand, until his palm was resting on the left side of Dante's chest. “And this neither.”_

_“...you may be an ass that I still wanna kill more times than not, but you’re also my brother, and I care about you.”_

_“...if I had to make a guess, maybe this fool is getting old already, and only remembers the things he truly cares about.”_

_“I prefer spending a damn week kicking out these underground mazes than do nothing and lose you again.”_

_“...I left you behind, and there’s nothing I’ve regretted more in my damn life.”_

“ ** _I love you, Vergil._** ”

They could; and especially those last four words and the way Dante said them made Vergil be convinced that he had misinterpreted his brother’s words back then, and that they meant more than he had assumed.

Once he reached that conclusion, his next concern was related to Nero. Despite the boy’s predisposition to support him and accept his decisions no matter what they were, he doubted that Nero knew the exact implications of making such a statement. It wouldn't be weird that an argument exploded once Nero learned about his recently discovered feelings involving Dante, and the possibility that Nero decided to leave when that happened was enough to make Vergil reconsider the risk of letting his feelings run free.

There was still time to bury them, after all. He could still force them away, even putting some distance between him and Dante before those emotions, about which he wasn’t entirely certain yet, could reach a point of no return.

He had been in the process of deciding how to proceed next when Dante appeared in the office.

Vergil suppressed the urge of clicking his tongue by approaching the cup to his lips again. Seeing Dante look so unconcerned while he had spent the whole afternoon thinking about their situation had irritated him quite a lot. In fact, when Dante had announced he was going on a date, he had needed to make use of all his self-control not to resume their previous battle at that precise moment.

Luckily, he had managed to hold back those impulses, which allowed him to reach the conclusion that perhaps Dante had lied about the date; that it was a stratagem to be alone, because if his deductions happened to be correct and Dante really loved him, it had no sense that the man was fooling around so nonchalantly.

He suffered the first disappointment when he found Dante and that woman in that restaurant; the second one happened when, after skipping the second dish, they both abandoned the table and came back to the street with Dante’s arm surrounding the woman’s waist; and the third took place when, at a prudent distance, Vergil saw how their steps took them to Il Chiaro Mondo Hotel.

By then, Vergil had enough evidence to deduce that Dante’s date was not fake. He knew he should come back to the office, to Nero, and make love to him all night long, losing himself in his son’s groans and in the way he felt inside him until he forgot about his stupid brother who gave him mixed, confusing signals.

He approached the hotel instead. Part of Vergil still hoped that Dante had taken the farce until the very end, and that a little of wait would allow him to see that woman or Dante abandon the hotel, alone.

Five minutes later Vergil was still waiting, and no one had left the hotel. When another five passed, Vergil hid in the shadows of the building placed in front of the hotel and teleported to the roofs. The fact that the hotel was undergoing renovations limited the available rooms, so Vergil rapidly found out the one he was looking for. When he located it, Vergil crouched on the roof to reduce the possibilities of someone distinguishing his figure.

From where he was, he had a clear view of what was happening inside the hotel room that Dante and his lover for the night were currently occupying.

Dante was sitting on the edge of the bed with that woman perched on his lap. They had only removed their upper clothes for now, but their hurried making out indicated that it wouldn’t be long until they both ended naked, the thought being enough for Vergil to feel a pool of discomfort in his lower stomach.

The woman’s arms were wrapped around Dante’s neck, with one of her hands gripping the back of Dante’s long, now messier hair. Her expression was one of pure arousal: her lipstick smeared due to all their previous wild kissing, her eyes shut closed, and gasps of anticipation escaped her mouth while Dante’s face was buried in her bosom, peppering kisses and nips on her partially exposed breasts, for now still covered in a tight bra.

Vergil couldn’t understand why on earth that woman was being so loud for such little ministrations, but when he decided to divert his attention from Dante’s face, he noticed that his brother’s hand had disappeared under the woman’s skirt, surely playing with her clit.

His suspicions were confirmed when the woman’s moans turned into stuttered, quicker gasps until a loud cry replaced them and her body arched against Dante, reaching her orgasm.

When that happened, she called Dante’s name in ecstasy while digging her nails on Dante’s exposed shoulders. Vergil gritted his teeth, annoyed for the fact that Dante had been marked by someone else.

At that moment Dante whispered something in the woman’s ear while bucking his hips up, causing the woman to mewl again when the tent of Dante’s dark trousers rubbed against her cunt. Dante’s smirk widened when the woman nodded in a still dizzy but eager state and adopted a kneeling position between Dante’s parted legs.

The woman unzipped Dante’s trousers while Dante rested his forearms back against the mattress, ready to enjoy the show. Vergil’s thumb slid through the top of his sword when the woman lowered Dante’s underwear, displaying his erection. He didn’t like one bit the expression of anticipation that Dante had in his face at that moment, neither the way his breathing was now heavier, making his chest go up and down visibly.

On his defense, he tried to hold back. He tried to tell himself that Dante wasn’t doing anything wrong; that it had been him the one getting carried away, assuming what Dante’s feelings were; that he didn’t have the right to tell Dante what he had to do with his sexual life, and much less to intrude in it, the same as Dante had respected his own.

It was in vain, because when Dante bit the side of his lower lip, his eyes going half-mast as the woman took him in her mouth and started bobbing her head up and down, that wave of annoyance that Vergil was already feeling turned into a powerful tsunami.

Before he could register his own actions, he had invoked his spectral blades around him and had thrown them against the hotel window.

The sound of broken glass mixed with that woman’s scared shouts and his brother’s shocked curses. Once the window no longer existed, Vergil teleported to the small balcony and entered the room. The woman was hiding behind the side of the bed, her eyes terrified, while Dante was staring at him wide-eyed as if he didn’t believe what he was seeing.

“What the hell, Vergil?!” Dante exclaimed, tucking his softened cock inside his underwear again, but Vergil’s eyes were fixed on the woman.

“You,” he made the gesture of unsheathing his sword by pulling it out slightly outside the scabbard with his thumb, the action sounding loud in the room, “ _out_.”

He didn’t need to raise his voice. That hiss was enough so that that woman exhaled a high-pitched cry. She clumsily recovered her top, coat and bag and almost crawled towards the door in the same instant that it was opening.

For a moment Vergil thought that the owner of the hotel was paying them a visit for the ruckus, but it was no other than Nero the one who appeared in the frame. Apparently, the boy had felt there was something wrong with him and had been following him while he followed Dante.

Perhaps under other circumstances Vergil would reproach Nero for intruding in his business, but at the moment the source of his bad mood was Dante, since the man had cursed in disappointment, looking clearly frustrated after having lost his one-night stand.

“Damn,” Nero exclaimed after stepping to the side to allow the traumatized woman to exit the place. “What the hell happened here?”

Dante snorted loudly while reaching for his discarded t-shirt. It seemed that he had finally recovered from the shock because now he was glaring at Vergil with an irritation that matched the one Vergil was feeling.

“That’s what I’d like to know, kid.” Dante finished putting his t-shirt on to point at Vergil with an accusatory finger, the same that had been exploring under the woman's clothes. The thought made Vergil clench his jaw in disgust. “Fuck, you better tell me that she was some kind of demon that you were pursuing because otherwise you’re fucking insane.”

Vergil suppressed a gulp. Acting impulsively wasn’t something that he was prone to do. He didn’t like not being in control, especially of his thoughts and actions. The only times when he allowed himself to 'lose it' was with Dante, and later on with Nero, but even when he allowed himself to listen to his impulses, he did it because he consciously decided to do so.

Right then though, his body had moved faster than his thoughts. He hadn’t had time to even think about the consequences of his actions, and now there he was, furiously thinking about how to answer without exposing his true motives.

“Hello, earth calling my psychopath brother.”

Dante’s sarcastic comment made Vergil realize he had remained silent for too long.

“No, she was no demon,” he eventually admitted, after considering that using the excuse that Dante himself had made up would be useless.

“Well, at least you haven’t taken me for a fool by lying to me, I guess that’s something.” Dante crossed his arms. “Although that doesn’t explain what the hell’s gotten into you to appear here like that.”

Despite keeping an imperturbable face, Vergil’s pulse was racing. By basing on how things were playing out, answering without revealing too much would be tricky, almost impossible.

At that point, his only choice was to take a risk, and try to turn the situation around in his favor.

“Simple. It was just a small call of attention for your improper behavior.”

Dante blinked, initially just confused, but then angry once again.

“Verg, I _swear_ to mum that if this is some kind of patronizing bullshit about me wasting money or fooling around—”

“It is not.”

“Then what the hell do you mean with that?”

Vergil walked with calm until standing in the middle of the room, his voice sounding as firm as usual despite the way his heart was thumping against his chest.

“What I mean is that for someone who is supposed to be in love with me, you are doing a rather poor job at proving it.”

The light was very dim in the room, but just enough so that Vergil could see how pale Dante had become after hearing his words.

The new silence dragged for a few seconds, with the sound of cars and murmurs of the people in the street as a background.

After that, Dante gulped thickly, and surprised Vergil by breaking eye contact in order to look at Nero, whose presence Vergil had almost forgotten.

“Did you tell him?”

Vergil frowned, not understanding immediately what Dante meant with that shocked comment until he himself looked at Nero and saw the kid shaking his head no.

It was Vergil’s turn to open his eyes wide in shock before half-closing them, anger boiling up inside him.

“Did _you_ know?”

Nero didn’t look the least concerned about his hissed question. In fact, the boy had the nerve to look at him with patience. Vergil grabbed his sword with more force with the intention of punishing his - _again_ \- liar son.

He wasn’t able to complete the action, since at that moment Dante reduced the distance between them to punch him in the face.

The hit took him by surprise, and he stumbled backwards towards Nero. He didn’t notice how his son raised his hands to grab Vergil before he impacted against him.

He could only focus on Dante’s expression.

By basing on the anger and mortification he saw in it, it seemed that Dante had realized that he had been fooling into admitting that, and he wasn’t the least happy about it.

“You’re a fucking asshole.”

After snapping those words, Dante brusquely recovered his coat and turned around to jump down through the opened gap, leaving him and Nero behind.

“Damn, dad, was it really _that_ difficult to use the door like a normal person? You know we’re gonna have to pay for that, right?”

Nero’s comment made Vergil realize that his son’s hands were still grabbing his arms from behind. He got himself free with a brusque movement, glaring at Nero then.

“You knew,” he repeated. “All this time, _you knew_.”

Nero stared at Vergil in disbelief.

“What the fuck, this is not the time to discuss this!”

“I will determine when it’s time or not, boy. You should know already how little tolerance I have to lies, and during all this time, you have decided to remain silent despite being aware of Dante’s feelings towards me—”

Vergil interrupted himself, his anger towards his son vanishing when that last piece of information finally sank into him.

“Are you sure you want to have this conversation now?” Nero repeated, now showing an amused smile that Vergil failed to notice because he was looking at his son without seeing him, still assimilating that he had been right.

His deductions about Dante’s feelings had been correct.

Dante was in love with him. Dante loved him. And _that_ meant that he couldn’t keep using the excuse of not knowing where the man stood to acknowledge how _he_ felt. He swallowed, but before that familiar tightness curled against his chest, Nero approached him and grabbed his shoulder.

“Hey, hey, hey, don’t even think about running away now, you hear me?” Vergil looked at Nero with surprise, causing this one to snort. “I recognize those eyes. They look the same as when I kissed you at the top of the Qliphoth, before you disappeared on me.”

Vergil clicked his tongue, not feeling too comfortable with the memory of his behavior back then.

“I remind you that we had some Qliphoth roots to destroy back then. It was a necessary absence.”

“Oh, sure, and the week you spent hiding in Devil May Cry with Dante was also super necessary.”

“I was _not_ hiding.”

“Yep, you were, but again, this is _not_ the time to discuss this. What you should be doing is going after Dante to tell him you love him too.”

Vergil’s heart stopped when, as usual, Nero was more direct than he could ever agree to be.

“I have never said that my feelings are the same,” he said with his best imperturbable voice. “I remind you that it’s my brother whom we’re talking about.”

Nero blinked, looking them at him in a deafening silence.

“Dad, are you _really_ going to play the incest card here?”

"I'm not implying that incest is an issue, boy. I simply say that harboring that kind of feelings towards Dante is…” Vergil averted his eyes briefly, trying to come up with the most suitable word. “Unexpected. Bizarre."

"Bizarre?” Nero repeated, now looking confused. “But why?"

"Because it's _Dante_.” He said, in a louder volume than he was intending. “The issue does not lie in him being my brother, but in the nature of our interactions up till now. We have been always fighting and hating each other for years. Defeating him, _killing_ him, was my goal during most part of my life. So even if our interactions have improved since our last encounter, even if I do not wish to end his life and he does not wish to end mine either, thinking about him in other terms that goes beyond mutual respect and care for each other is new. Too new.” Vergil exhaled a deep sigh and approached the bed to sit on the edge of it, with Yamato between his legs. “It is quite a change. It’s something I had not foreseen, and I still need to wrap my mind around it.”

He could feel Nero’s surprise without having to look at the boy. It was logical. Speaking his thoughts aloud wasn’t something that Vergil was used to doing, but at that moment it had come natural to him, perhaps because Nero was still there, hearing him out even despite the fact that the boy had all the right to feel angry by the turn of events.

After a pause, Nero also sat on the bed next to him, leaning his hands back against the mattress.

“You should tell Dante all this, you know?” Nero said then. “I mean, it’s okay if you aren’t sure about what to do, but after forcing that confession out of him, the least you owe him is an explanation.”

Vergil knew that Nero was right, but it wasn’t in his nature to easily admit his mistakes.

“Well, from my point of view, you are the main culprit of that forced confession.”

Nero’s shocked ‘Hah?!’ also allowed Vergil to picture the boy’s outraged expression without looking at him.

“What the hell, I didn’t do anything!”

“Precisely. If you had informed me about Dante’s feelings the moment you learned about them, I wouldn’t have needed to expose them.”

“Oh, so now I have to apologize for being able to keep a promise?”

“No, but you should do it for not distinguising which promises should _not_ be kept.”

Nero exhaled an exasperated groan and dropped back against the mattress.

“God, Dante’s right. You’re such an asshole.”

Vergil didn’t feel particularly bothered by the insult, maybe because he was more concerned of how Nero was going to react next.

“Nero.”

“What do you want now?” The silence that followed Vergil’s call caused Nero’s gruffy tone to turn into a confused one when talking next. “Dad?”

After a few more seconds, Vergil shifted his body to look at Nero, who was still lying on the bed but had straightened a little his position to lean back on his forearms.

“Let’s assume that you are right, and that I come to the conclusion that my feelings for Dante now run deeper than before.” Vergil's gaze intesified while getting ready to read whatever the boy tried to hide from him. “Don’t you have anything to say in this?"

Nero held his glance before sitting straight again to be at his same level.

“Yeah, I have.” Nero tilted his head. “I say that the bed isn't big enough for the three of us, so you’ll be in charge of buying a new one.”

Vergil’s eyes opened more at the answer. Nero’s answer had been playful, almost in a Dante-like way, but the boy’s blue eyes were honest, and so was the smile that appeared in his face after talking, blowing away the concerns that Vergil had about Nero accepting their hypothetical new situation.

“I wouldn’t allow it.” Nero frowned without understanding, so he elaborated. “If our positions were switched, I wouldn’t allow to share you with someone else.”

His tone darkened just with the idea of Nero having suggested a similar arrangement between him and his ex-fiancée.

“I know." Nero shrugged. "But lucky for you, I’m not a possessive jerk.” Nero then bumped his shoulder softly against his and then pointed at the window with his chin. “And now stop wasting time and go talk to Dante before he does something stupid like leaving. ”

“Aren’t you coming?”

“I prefer to stay here for a bit. I don’t want to risk to interrupt you while you are ‘wrapping your mind around’ Dante.”

The ghost of a smile appeared in Vergil’s face when hearing Nero put more emphasis in those words. Normally, he would have taken his leave with a goodbye nod. This time he found himself grabbing the boy’s chin and leaning forward to kiss him with intensity before abandoning the room, with no pressure in his chest anymore and with the certainty that that night, in one way or another, he and Dante would leave things clear between them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the ones who were looking forwards for something _finally_ happening between Vergil and Dante, stay tuned for the next chapter <3 <3 :)


End file.
